Gareth Southgate says ‘top four in the world is not good enough’ for England

England take on Spain in the Uefa Nations League at Wembley Stadium on Saturday
James Olley7 September 2018

Gareth Southgate has challenged his players to storm up the Fifa rankings and become the world’s No1 team.

England play Spain at Wembley on Saturday in their inaugural Uefa Nations League fixture as they return to Wembley for the first time since reaching the World Cup semi-finals in Russia in July.

Southgate has retained the vast majority of the 23-man squad that performed so well during the summer as he looks to build on England’s most promising tournament performance for 22 years.

England climbed to sixth place in Fifa’s world rankings as a result - their highest position since 2011 - and the manager wants his players to aim even higher as they begin the countdown towards Euro 2020, starting by securing victory over three-times European Championship winners Spain.

“I said at the end of the World Cup that we deservedly finished in the top four, but we’re yet to be a top-four team in the world,” he said. “Our real ambition is to be the best team in the world - and that’s going to need a lot of hard work, clear planning and thinking as a support team. But that’s the next challenge for us.

“The Nations League really gives us something different to focus on and, from our perspective, the progression we want to make over the next few years is to be able to beat the likes of Spain and Croatia.

“Historically, in tournaments, we haven’t really done that. When I look back, that’s been right the way through history, so we’ve ideally got to start the next European Championships being ranked as one of the top teams in the world with a record of beating these teams. We now play Spain and Croatia, with Switzerland in the middle of that, and they are the sort of tests we need.”

Wembley is close to a sell-out for Saturday’s match, with fans keen to take the opportunity to see many of the players who captivated the nation this summer.

Scenes of celebrations across the country went viral on social media as supporters revelled in England’s progress and Southgate added: “We said before the tournament, when we set a target, it was for the country to be proud of us when we came back - and I think we achieved that.

“We knew in order to do that we would need to win some matches, but the way that we played and the way the players were together, really clicked with the English public. We had an idea of what the atmosphere was like back home, but it wasn’t until we actually got back that we realised the true impact that we’d had on everybody.

“To be able to have such a positive effect on everybody here was brilliant and I believe we really progressed as a team.”

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