Southgate after England’s progress: the players are showing incredible character and resilience. It’s not just about playing well

England have done it again. After a miserable performance, they celebrate their progress to the semi-finals over Switzerland, celebrating only thanks to penalties. Coach Gareth Southgate has spoken of the public criticism weighing so heavily on him that he basically can’t even rejoice at progression.

• England progress to the semi-finals
• Their opponents will be the Netherlands
• Southgate responds to public criticism

Football EUROs have not been very entertaining in recent matches. If Spain are not playing, it is often incredibly boring and that was not the case in England’s match against Switzerland.

We’ve known for a while that England don’t play pretty football, but with Switzerland it was basically unwatchable. Both teams only really got going late on when Embolo and Saka came through in quick succession.

After that it was a draw and both teams wanted a penalty kick roulette. These worked out better for England, who celebrated another valuable promotion, although most fans across Europe were cheering their opponents.

“I took this job to try and move English football forward. I wanted us to regain credibility on the world stage.

I can’t deny it (criticism) is as personal as it has been in recent weeks, on a human level it has been extremely difficult. We won’t stop fighting, we’re in another semi-final and we’ll see where we get to,” coach Gareth Southgatesaid after the game.

Because of the criticism, the England coach is already missing some of the joy of football. “From time to time you think that there must be joy in this job. If I can’t enjoy this moment, it’s all a waste of time,” he added.

But Southgate tries to explain that not everything is about the beautiful game. England simply play purposeful football and if they win a tournament with it, no one will care in a few years how they got there.

“To win a tournament you have to show other qualities. These players show incredible character and resilience. It’s not just about playing well,” he concluded.

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