Gareth Southgate warned his gamers to not take European Championship qualification as a right on the eve of England’s opener towards reigning champions Italy.
England return to motion on the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday, 103 days on from their disappointing loss to eventual runners-up France within the World Cup quarter-finals.
Southgate thought-about his future after that disappointment however pledged to teach by way of to subsequent summer time’s Euros, with England kicking off qualification for the event in Germany at Euro 2020 ultimate foes Italy.
The supervisor is searching for his fiftieth win in cost and held a gathering earlier than the journey to Naples the place he informed his gamers to reset and refocus on qualification.
“They’ve been involved in some of the biggest matches in world football and they know the level that’s required, they know they have the ability to compete at that level,” Southgate stated.
“Then the fact that whatever we’ve done in the past is irrelevant tomorrow night because we have to start again.
“We have to have the humility to work hard to qualify again and it’s a great fixture for us to get that under way.”
Put to Southgate that European champions Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup may act as a warning that qualification can’t be taken as a right, he stated: “Without a doubt.
“I think what we did really well after the Euros was our first game away in Hungary – we gave one of our best performances, I think. Our mentality from the start was really, really good.
“I don’t expect that mentality to be a problem but it’s a reminder that these early stages of qualifying are crucial.
“I can remember us scoring a late goal against Poland at Wembley with no fans and people would have taken that victory for granted but it was such an important moment in qualifying.
“We had several of those in our previous qualification campaigns.
“So, although some of those groups looked comfortable in the end, there were plenty of nights where that wasn’t the case.”
England kick off Group C with arguably their two hardest fixtures, with Thursday’s journey to Italy adopted by a Wembley conflict towards Euro 2020 quarter-final opponents Ukraine on Sunday.
Winning each matches would see them take an enormous stride in the direction of subsequent summer time’s finals in Germany, with Southgate difficult his group to safe England’s first win away to Italy since 1961.
“In a nutshell it’s the sort of challenge that we’ve got to take on and the type of game we have got to start winning,” he stated. “We have over a period but we’ve got to now consistently try to do that.
“That said, we haven’t won here since 1961 so it’s also another bit of history that we are trying to break down.
“That is a great challenge for this team because they have knocked down so many of those barriers in the past.
“I know Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup, but they still have some outstanding players and they are going to have high motivation as well, so it is going to be a fabulous game.”
Captain Harry Kane may make historical past in his first worldwide match since his penalty miss towards France.
The Tottenham striker joined Wayne Rooney as the one man to attain 53 targets for the nationwide staff by scoring his first spot-kick, however his miss later that evening noticed him cross up the prospect to interrupt the document as England bowed out.
“We’ve seen that mentally in his performances and his goalscoring with his club; he has put it behind him,” Southgate stated of Kane.
“But I know he is going to have added motivation tomorrow night to come back and show everybody what he’s about again in an England shirt, so, for us, that’s a good position.
“Of course it’s always difficult to compare across ages. There are a lot that I didn’t see because I wasn’t alive but because of the goalscoring record alone, that puts him in the upper echelons of that group (of great England players).
“He provides so much more for the team than just that – his quality of passing, his vision, his touch.
“He is an outstanding player and we are very, very fortunate to have him.”