As soon as England secured their place in the World Cup knockout phase with a win over Wales, Gareth Southgate proclaimed that the “big business” was upon them. The England manager and his player are well accustomed to knockout football by now but, nevertheless, there will be butterflies in the stomach ahead of their meeting with Senegal.
Motivation for England comes in the form of the semi-final defeat in extra-time to Croatia in their last outing in a knockout game on the world stage and losing last summer’s European Championship final to Italy on penalties.
Southgate’s team run out onto the pitch at Al Bayt Stadium with confidence but also increased expectations, according to the manager. “I guess the biggest thing is the expectation levels and the satisfaction levels,” Southgate said of the difference between this time around and Russia 2018. “In Russia, when we qualified from the group stage, we were probably more excited than we were this time.
“Although we enjoyed the win against Wales. You’ve got to enjoy your wins because, if you don’t enjoy those, then there’s not a lot of point being in this, frankly. And then, of course, everything was geared around first knockout win for 10 years, so that was almost our objective in Russia.
“We have to take a step at a time, the same thing. We talked about that from the beginning of the tournament. Our first objective was to qualify from the group. We knew we had three games to do that. But we’re now on to the more important part of the competition and we’ve got to get this bit right as well.”
As for the possibility of a shoot-out, Southgate promised: “We are prepared. We’re aiming to win the game and to avoid extra time and penalties if we can. We’d like to get a victory in 90 minutes.”
'Selection dilemmas are good for us'
Eyes will be on the starting lineup Southgate selects. Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden put their cases for a starting berth forward in the final group game whilst Southgate naturally favours Raheem Sterling, who has delivered for the national team in key moments before. There is also a decision for Southgate to make in midfield with Jordan Henderson’s experience being a factor to consider.
“It’s a good position to be in,” Southgate said. “You want your players in confident mood and our forward players are. Of course you want to try to make the best possible decision, but in some respects I’m not sure there’s a right or a wrong. Whichever players we start with, we’re going to need the bench, we need the strength.
“They all offer different attributes and it’s just trying to get the balance of the team right and make the best possible decisions. But for us great that we’ve got the whole squad fit and available, feeling good about themselves, but with that nice balance of knowing how difficult it was to get through this round in our last two tournaments.”
'Senegal have shown spirit'
There is definitely a view in England that the team will beat Senegal, the reigning African champions, and play a quarter final against France, particularly as Sadio Mane is out injured for Senegal. But that is not a view shared within the England camp.
Senegal defeated Qatar and Ecuador to emerge from Group A as runners-up and Southgate acknowledge the threat they represent despite the absence of their talisman. “Sadio is obviously an incredible player and every team would want to have him,” he said. “But what we’ve seen from the team of Senegal, they’ve become very strong in his absence. And they have shown great spirit through losing him.
“So we know it doesn’t make a difference to the level of the fixture for tomorrow. We’ve got to be prepared for the game and we’ve got to be at our very best to be able to win the game.”
There is doubt whether Aliou Cisse, the Senegal head coach, will be unable to attend the game having been struck down with illness and being absent from training in recent days and the pre-match press conference.
Given the number of shocks that have already graced the competition, Southgate has warned of the dangers lurking for his England team after seeing Belgium, Denmark and Germany all get knocked out against the odds.
“The depth of the challenge is really tough,” Southgate, added. “It just shows how competitive international football is. Those three teams, either historically or in the recent tournaments, have had really good performances: a semi-final for Belgium [at the 2018 World Cup]; semi-final for Denmark [at Euro 2020, while Germany won the World Cup in 2014]. We expected all of those teams to do well.
“The teams they played against were very strong. All of these games are difficult. We know the size of the task.”