World Cup: Gareth Southgate says England dressing room was ‘like M*A*S*H’ after penalties win
Written by News on 07/07/2018
Gareth Southgate likened the England dressing room to a scene from war comedy series M*A*S*H after his side’s gruelling World Cup penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia.
But supporters back home should not take that to mean there are any major injury problems ahead of the Three Lions’ quarter-final clash against Sweden on Saturday, with backup striker Jamie Vardy the only doubt.
The squad touched down in Samara on Friday and Southgate revealed that everyone else had managed to train as normal before flying out from their training base near St Petersburg.
“In terms of fitness, we need to check Vardy again in the morning,” said the England boss.
“He completed what we hoped he would today but slightly separate to the team. We will just check whether there is any reaction to that. Everybody else trained.”
Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli has had fitness concerns of his own during the tournament and came off before the end of normal time during the dramatic last-16 tie on Tuesday night.
But Southgate expects him to be available for Saturday and is confident he can make an impact, having not yet registered a goal or assist in Russia.
“I think maybe we need to encourage him a little bit more to get into those areas where I think his strengths lie – where he can have the biggest impact on the game,” said Southgate.
“That is something I need to think about tactically but like I say, he did a fantastic job for the team (against Colombia).
“Sometimes in those matches when you’re playing top opposition, it is the balance of doing both. We had good controlled possession but we do want to create more clear chances and I think we can.”
If England beat Sweden, they will be in the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time since 1990.
It will be the third time the two sides have met in the last five World Cups.
They faced each other in the group stages of the 2002 and 2006 tournaments, with the tightly fought matches ending up 1-1 and 2-2 respectively.
“They are a very strong team, I’ve played against Sweden many times,” said Southgate.
“They always have better players than we give them credit for, this team is the same. Beating France, Italy, knocking out Germany, we’ll have to play well to beat them.”
Uruguay were comfortably beaten 2-0 by France in the first of the four quarter-finals to be played, with the second tie between Brazil and Belgium set to kick-off at 7pm UK time on Friday.
England and Sweden play at 3pm on Saturday, followed by Croatia and hosts Russia at 7pm.
(c) Sky News 2018: World Cup: Gareth Southgate says England dressing room was ‘like M*A*S*H’ after penalties win
