Southgate on his struggles to find the ‘right blend’ in his squadpublished at 19:30
Spain v England (Sun, 20:00 BST)
England
Right, back to those quotes from England manager Gareth Southgate, who was asked about the challenges his squad have faced:
“We’ve had to find a different way of playing as the tournament has progressed. At the start we had a lot of issues at the back, a lot of players who had missed a lot of football.
“Towards the end of the season, John Stones hardly played for Manchester City but he has been absolutely exceptional. Marc Guehi and Kieran Trippier, Luke Shaw were all out injured for months, so we’ve been trying to find the right blend and balance all the way through the summer really.”
On finding the right attacking balance: “We’ve had to try to find the best balance for our attacking players too because we’ve got super talent, but a lot that like to operate in similar areas.
“And we think we have started to find that balance as the tournament has progressed. I’ve really liked how we’ve looked, we’ve looked dangerous, like we can score goals and I’m happy where the team are at going into this game.”