England head coach Gareth Southgate said what he expects from the Euro 2024 qualifying match with Ukraine, which will be held today in London.
Gareth Southgate"We saw at the very beginning of the war how the Ukraine national team came to Scotland for a playoff match of the World Cup 2022 qualifying cycle. Our current opponent, under the circumstances, is a very proud group of players who are fully committed to pleasing Ukrainian fans.
Of course, we are very sympathetic to what is happening in Ukraine, but there will be a match and a game of soccer on Sunday night. So we are completely focused on beating Ukraine.
Henderson's condition? He didn't train much last week with Liverpool because of illness, but he's fine now. Bellingham and Phillips are also fine. It's clear that the latter played a full match against Italy for the first time since the break, so now we'll have to assess his freshness. However, I can say that about every one of our players. We have to find the right balance between a solid set of performers and the freshness of the players.
In the match against Italy I was most pleased with the tenacity we showed. But there were, of course, other qualities needed to win. If in the match against Ukraine again we can show it all, then we're waiting for a perfect game.
And the match against Italy is the past, and it does not matter now. We are fully focused on the match against Ukraine. We need to win again. If we want to be regarded as the best team, we have to keep proving our game and our results," Southgate said at the pre-match press conference.
