GARETH Southgate still looked certain to be knighted – despite last night’s defeat.
The 53-year-old took charge of a demoralized team that lost to Iceland at Euro 2016 – and led the Three Lions to two Euro finals and a World Cup semi-final.
Yesterday, England fan Paul Murray, 48, from Surrey, said: “Stand up, Sir Gareth. There is no doubt that he deserves it after becoming English soccer around.”
Bookie Betfair said Southgate was a 2/1 bet to be knighted.
But the England manager was inevitably subdued last night.
He said: “We competed until the end of the final but we didn’t keep the ball enough. But they were the better team and deserved to win.”
Southgate inherited a dark legacy of failures and penalties that defined England as football’s eternal almost-man.
Suffering fans have suffered agonizing near misses, bad luck and catastrophic mistakes since 1966, when the Three Lions became the eternal near men of world football.
Southgate took charge of England on September 27, 2016 and in two years built a young, confident team that came within 22 minutes of the World Cup final in Moscow.
Their battling lions faltered against Croatia and lost 2-1, but defeated the Germans on the way to the Euro 2020 final against Italy – where the penalty pack struck again.
But consistency and the ability to “win badly” have been the brand from this summer’s brilliant Cup campaign – to the first foreign tournament final, which took place last night in Berlin.
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