Gareth Southgate insists England can end 56 years of hurt in Qatar as he calls on his stars to live up to the expectations of being one of the tournament favourites ahead of the World Cup draw
- England head into Qatar 2022 with genuine expectation after years in doldrums
- The national team are aiming to lift their first major trophy since 1966 World Cup
- England discover on Friday who they will face in the group stages of tournament
- Gareth Southgate – who will be at the draw in Doha – says his team can end hurt
Gareth Southgate has insisted England can win the World Cup later this year and called on his players to live up to their billing as one of the tournament favourites.
England will head into Qatar 2022 with genuine expectation of lifting their first major trophy since 1966 following their fourth-placed finish at the last World Cup and last summer’s euphoric run to the Euro 2020 final.
They will discover on Friday who they face in the group stages of the World Cup, and Southgate — who will attend the draw in Doha — believes his team are poised to end 56 years of hurt.
England manager Gareth Southgate insists his side CAN win the World Cup this year
He has called on his players to live with the expectation that comes with being favourites
‘We’ve had consistent performances over a four-year period and we are one of the teams who could win this tournament,’ said the England boss.
‘If we can get to a final (like Euro 2020), we can win. That’s clear. To do that is incredibly difficult and we’ll have to be as close to perfect as can be. That’s the challenge for us.
‘If you want be in the big jobs, you’ve got to live with the expectation.
England will discover on Friday who they will face in the group stages of the tournament
‘We’ve got to rationalise it in that we know there are some other very good players. But equally we have to accept there’s a belief and part of winning is being able to handle that.
‘We handled that well through the summer in a tournament where had a lot of matches at Wembley, and it was probably Scotland being the only one where we didn’t really handle that. Germany being what it was, the semi and so on.
‘When you’ve got evidence you can get results then the gap between expectation and what is possible is smaller and that makes the team less anxious.
‘We know the team are further on their journey of learning from those big-match experiences than we were before so that helps you handle it in an even better way.’
Advertisement