Gareth Southgate says he is “not a believer in fairytales but a believer in dreams” as the England boss attempts to mastermind a historic European Championship final win against Spain.
A summer that started with underwhelming performances and grumbles from fans and pundits alike ends in Berlin on Sunday with just a third ever major men’s final appearance.
Spain stand in their way of becoming kings of the continent for the first time, having lost their first European final in heartbreaking fashion against Italy at Wembley in 2021.
Southgate’s side return to that stage 1,099 days on from that Euro 2020 shoot-out loss ready to grasp their opportunity to make history against Spain at the cavernous Olympiastadion.
“We’re excited for the challenge,” the England boss said on the eve of the Euro 2024 final. “Clearly the team have improved over the last few weeks, showing tremendous character and resilience.
“I have to say they’ve been a privilege to work with every day on the training pitch, the whole squad fully committed to every session, so it’s been a great environment to work in.
“Now we have a fabulous opportunity tomorrow to achieve what we set out (to), really, from the moment we left Qatar a bit earlier than we’d have liked to (by losing in the World Cup quarter-finals).”
Southgate says “there’s a real desire to make this count having walked past that trophy” in 2021 at Wembley, where he also suffered heartache 28 years ago.
England lost their Euro 96 semi-final to Germany on penalties at the old ground, with the 57-cap former defender’s saved penalty the key moment in that defeat.
That moment was brought up in the press conference with Southgate and captain Harry Kane, with the pair asked if they believed in fate given England are playing in the final in Berlin after Germany won the competition in London.
Skipper Kane said: “You can answer that one. You were about in 96. I was only three!”
After laughter in the room subsided, Southgate said: “I was around, very much around – probably one of the more popular Englishmen in Berlin, I would imagine!
“Look, I’m not a believer in fairytales but I am a believer in dreams, and we’ve had big dreams. We’ve felt the need and the importance of that, but then you have to make those things happen.
“And fate, the run that we’ve had, the late goals, the penalties, that doesn’t equate to it being our moment. We have to make it happen tomorrow.
“We have to perform at the level that we need to perform. Of course it would be a lovely story but it’s in our hands and our performance is the most important thing.”
Southgate confirmed all 26 players are available – “everybody is fit which is great, although not unusual for a cup final,” he quipped – for their toughest battle of Euro 2024.
He knows England will have to be “perfect” if they are to beat the team of the tournament on Sunday, when the resilience shown throughout the summer will be needed in abundance.
“Sometimes you have to go through difficult nights as a team,” Southgate said ahead of his 102nd and potentially last match in charge.
“We tried to change the mindset from the start. We’ve tried to be more honest about where we were as a football nation.
“I’ve travelled to World Cups, European Championships watching as an observer and watched highlights reels before the matches that were on the big screen before the game and we weren’t in any of them. Because they only show the finals and the big games.
“We needed to change that. We had high expectations but they didn’t match where we were performance-wise.
“Now, the high expectations are still there but we have had consistent performances over certainly three of the last four tournaments and a quarter-final as well in the fourth.
“In the end, you always have to be in the latter stages of the tournaments to be able to learn how to win those big games.
“We’re learning that, we’ve come through a lot of big nights now. A lot of records that we’ve broken.
“But we know in the end, we have to do this one, we have to get this trophy to really feel the respect of the rest of the football world I guess.”