England begin their European Championship qualification campaign away to Italy on Thursday evening and manager Gareth Southgate has warned his players not to take qualification for granted as they prepare to face the reigning champions.
This is England’s first return to action since losing to France in the World Cup quarter-finals in December and, with Southgate looking for his 50th win in charge, the manager held a meeting where he told his players to reset and refocus on qualifying for Euro 2024 in Germany.
“They’ve been involved in some of the biggest matches in world football and they know the level that’s required, they know they have the ability to compete at that level,” Southgate said. “Then the fact that whatever we’ve done in the past is irrelevant tomorrow night because we have to start again.
“We have to have the humility to work hard to qualify again and it’s a great fixture for us to get that under way.”
England are in Naples to face the current European champions, searching for their first away win over Italy since 1961. Despite triumphing against England in the Euro 2020 final, Roberto Mancini’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup and that should act as a warning to England that qualification cannot be taken for granted, according to Southgate.
“Without a doubt,” Southgate insisted. “I think what we did really well after the Euros was our first game away in Hungary – we gave one of our best performances, I think. Our mentality from the start was really, really good.
“I don’t expect that mentality to be a problem but it’s a reminder that these early stages of qualifying are crucial. I can remember us scoring a late goal against Poland at Wembley with no fans and people would have taken that victory for granted but it was such an important moment in qualifying.
“We had several of those in our previous qualification campaigns. So, although some of those groups looked comfortable in the end, there were plenty of nights where that wasn’t the case.”
‘This is type of game we must start winning’
This is arguably England’s biggest test of the upcoming qualifying campaign — albeit they are currently higher in the FIFA world rankings than their hosts. Southgate believes that defeating the ‘bigger’ nations is something that England have to start doing if they are to take the next step in tournaments.
“In a nutshell it’s the sort of challenge that we’ve got to take on and the type of game we have got to start winning,” he said. “We have over a period but we’ve got to now consistently try to do that. That said, we haven’t won here since 1961 so it’s also another bit of history that we are trying to break down.
“That is a great challenge for this team because they have knocked down so many of those barriers in the past. I know Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup, but they still have some outstanding players and they are going to have high motivation as well, so it is going to be a fabulous game.”
England are likely to stick with the 4-3-3 formation despite being without Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount for this game and the home match with Ukraine on Sunday. Striker Harry Kane only needs one goal to break Wayne Rooney’s England goalscoring record and Southgate said his captain has put his quarter-final penalty miss behind him.
“We’ve seen that mentally in his performances and his goalscoring with his club; he has put it behind him,” Southgate said of Kane. “But I know he is going to have added motivation tomorrow night to come back and show everybody what he’s about again in an England shirt, so, for us, that’s a good position.
“Of course it’s always difficult to compare across ages. There are a lot that I didn’t see because I wasn’t alive but because of the goalscoring record alone, that puts him in the upper echelons of that group [of great England players].
“He provides so much more for the team than just that – his quality of passing, his vision, his touch. He is an outstanding player and we are very, very fortunate to have him.”
‘We hope game passes with no problems’
The Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples, which hasn’t hosted an Italy national team match for a decade, has been a contentious venue choice. Supporters of England and Italy had been due to play a friendly, only for a threatening email purporting to be from Napoli ultras to see it cancelled.
Previously, Liverpool told fans heading to their Champions League opener at Napoli in September to stay in their hotels and away from the city centre due to safety concerns. Last week there were clashes between Napoli and Frankfurt fans before and after their Champions League tie in the city.
Around 3,000 England fans are expected in southern Italy and on the venue choice Southgate said: “I think everybody is looking forward to the experience of coming to Naples. Personally, I am exciting about playing in a city that loves football, with a great history.
“To come here when I can just about remember Maradona when they won the league, and Careca, so I’m excited about that from the football side. Always we ask our fans to be good tourists and respect the local culture. We hope the game and the next couple of days passes with no problems.”
