• England coach a big admirer of Joachim Löw’s team
• ‘It just shows that any team can be vulnerable’
Gareth Southgate was roughly five minutes into his press conference to preview England’s match against Belgium when the news filtered through that Germany – football royalty, as far as the World Cup is concerned – had been dethroned and he was asked for his thoughts about a result that could probably encapsulate what is known as schadenfreude in the country that invented the term.
The England manager’s first reaction was to express his considerable surprise and if, deep down, there was a measure of excitement about the World Cup losing one of the teams that historically leave England with an inferiority complex, he suppressed it well. He was in Russia last summer, he pointed out, to see Joachim Löw’s team win the Confederations Cup and, two days before that victory, he had flown to Poland to watch Germany beat Spain in the final of the European Under-21 Championship.
Written by Daniel Taylor in Kaliningrad
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/27/gareth-southgate-let-germany-defeat-be-a-warning-for-england under the title “Gareth Southgate: ‘Let Germany defeat be a warning for England’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
