London, June 7 (BNA) England coach Gareth Southgate said on Monday that Germany and Brazil remain the mainstay for England, welcoming the chance to test his team against Germany in the European Nations League on Tuesday.
Southgate led England to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and finished second in last year’s European Championship, the tournament in which Germany beat Germany on their way to the final against Italy, which they lost on penalties, Reuters reported.
Speaking ahead of England’s UEFA Nations League group stage match in Munich, Southgate said his team had to consistently beat the biggest teams in world football as they approached the World Cup finals in Qatar starting in November.
“For me, Germany and Brazil are still the benchmark for countries that regularly win trophies,” Southgate told reporters.
“People will talk about England winning 5-1 (over Germany in 2001) but they ended up in the World Cup final on the back of that qualifier.
“You have to respect what they have done and what they are as a country. This mentality is what we are trying to create. We are trying to get to the last stages of competitions and games like tomorrow are great. It is exactly the test we need.”
England lost 1-0 in their first defeat to Hungary in 60 years in last week’s Nations League opener, and Southgate will be seeking a response from his players.
“It’s a great metric, the next match is always the hardest. It’s not going to determine where we are in six months – just because we’ve beaten them now doesn’t mean we’ll be okay in five months. A lot will happen. In that period, Southgate said.
“However, one of our toughest challenges was that we were on our way to the semi-finals, but it was about whether we could beat the bigger teams. Since then, we have won in Spain, we have beaten Belgium at Wembley and we have beaten Germany.
“We’re starting to get these results and we just have to keep trying to do that.”
After the confrontation with Germany, England host Italy on Saturday and Hungary on June 14.