England can still qualify for Euro 2024: Southgate

LONDON: Head coach Gareth Southgate insists England’s lacklustre finish to the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign will mean nothing when it starts its bid to win the tournament in Germany.

Such are the expectations that Southgate is working under these days that qualifying with an unbeaten record from a potentially tricky group including Italy and Ukraine earned him few plaudits.

Being held to a 1-1 draw by North Macedonia on Monday meant England failed to beat a side as low as 66th in the FIFA rankings for the first time since 2016.

But with a runner-up finish at the last European Championship in 2021, as well as World Cup semifinal and quarterfinal appearances in the Southgate era, England’s status as one of the Euro favourites is well earned after six victories from their eight qualifiers.

And Southgate is confident England’s drab end to the qualifying campaign will prove nothing more than an irrelevant blip.

“The really big results were in March against Italy and Ukraine. It meant coming here was a completely different test,” he said. (AFP)