The Three Lions progressed past Senegal in
the first knockout round to clinch a tie against the defending champions,
presenting England's biggest test so far at the tournament.
Defeat against Didier Deschamps' side would
mark England's earliest exit from a major tournament under Southgate, who led
the side to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia and finished as
runners-up to Italy at Euro 2020.
While those improvements are significant,
England have fallen at a crucial hurdle against tough opponents in each of
those tournaments – losing 2-1 to Croatia in 2018 before a heartbreaking
penalty shoot-out defeat at Wembley last year.
Southgate has used that record to issue a
challenge to his squad, identifying that winning fixtures away from home
against top opposition is something yet to be achieved.
"We've made quite a bit of history
over the last four or five years, not all of it good, but that's the great
challenge," he said.
"When you go back through the
tournaments, you do see the teams that have knocked England out. We haven't
been able to do that [win an away knockout against elite opposition] so that's
the next test for this team.
"We have a lot of experience of these
moments and they know that they've had to win games in different ways; they've
had to come from behind in big matches.
"What we talked about against Senegal
was keeping the relentless pressure going, not sitting back when we were ahead,
making sure that we kept the intensity of our game. We've got to do that now
against the world champions."
England's success under Southgate is a far
cry from his predecessors, where disappointing exits from tournaments were par
from the course, which led Southgate to identify the difficulties faced on the
international stage – and highlighted bringing in young players early was
crucial.
"There have been lots of moments when
to play with England is difficult. It's a different sort of challenge to your
club. It's far more scrutiny," he explained.
"So you have to be able to handle
that. When we're selecting players, we're looking at their ability to handle
that mentally as much as anything else.
"The young lads that have come in are
showing that. But you never know until they are in these moments how that's
going to be.
"We had a lot of caps on the pitch
against Senegal, even the younger ones, because we've blooded them early."
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