Men's Senior

Gareth on growing resilience

Despite the defeat, Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate was upbeat about the way his team went about the game with ten men.

Preview

England boss Gareth Southgate put the disappointment of defeat against Denmark behind him to reveal his pride at how his team responded to their setbacks on the pitch.

"I was very proud of the performance," he said.

"I thought we were excellent for the opening period with eleven men, we really moved the ball well and were causing them allsorts of problems down our right-hand side with great interchange of play so I was really pleased with the start of the game.

"The sending off obviously alters things and then the penalty so quickly after that, but then with ten men we showed resilience and I thought we gave a great example of how you need to play with ten men pragmatically, waiting for the right moments to press and used the ball well when we could.

"The team dug in and defended as a solid unit and we got our set plays in the box for an opportunity to score when their keeper has made an amazing save to keep it at 1-0.

"But I couldn't be prouder of what the players have given, not only tonight but over the last ten days.

"They've come together and showed resilience, they're learning and improving and we've had to deal with any manner of interruptions to our preparations and changes we've had to make, so we come through as a stronger group."

Southgate also backed defender Harry Maguire to bounce back from his sending off, with the Manchester United man collecting two cautions in the first half shortly before Christian Eriksen's penalty winner.

"For me, he's a top player and a massive part of what we dom but he's having a period where he's getting a lot of stick thrown his way but he's big enough to deal with that and he'll come through it," added Southgate, who also saw Reece James shown a red card after the final whistle for dissent towards the referee at full time.

"He'll be stronger for it and has got our full support and he'll be stronger for it.

We'll give him the reassurance that we believe in him. He's having a period where things are going against him, but he has to believe and it will turn.

"The referee said he sent him [James] off for dissent, so that's a lesson that he's got to learn. But I thought he had an incredible game and he's impressed me all that week.

"It's something that shouldn't have happened, but after the week he's had, he's impressed us greatly."

Previews 

England boss Gareth Southgate spoke to the media ahead of the game on Tuesday evening, as the Three Lions go in search of a third straight win at Wembley Stadium.

And after the impressive victory over Belgium on Sunday, he's keen to see his players step up to build on what was a good result in the UEFA Nations League.

“The sign of a good team is to be able to back up a big result," he said.

"You’ve got to have consistency, you’ve got to have constant improvement and constant evolution.

“Greatm we’ve shown a big result against a very good team but we have to win again on Wednesday

"If you want to be top players or top teams, that’s the demands and you’ve got to be relentless in that drive.

“We’ve made that point, the senior players also backed that up in a meeting we had on Monday morning and we felt that was the first step after Belgium, not having two days of comfort and everybody patting each other on the back. That was done within 30 minutes of the game and then we were on preparing for Denmark."

With the Denmark game being the third match in the space of a week for his squad, Southgate has also been happy with the way they've dealt with the first two matches.

"We won’t make any changes based on fatigue, because we’ve managed the group through the first part of the week so nobody has been over-trained or over-played and we’re free to pick whoever," he revealed. 

"We wouldn’t ideally want to make ideally too many changes and there’s an element of keeping a good thing going but also then is it the right thing? Do you need some freshness?

"So those are the decisions we have to make. It is a bit like a tournament situation, the three games and it’s even more complicated because we thought it was the right thing to do to bring a squad of 29, 30 – once everybody had turned up."

Previous encounters

There's been 20 meetings between England and Denmark over the years and we were ironically set to play them in a friendly game at Wembley in March as a EURO 2020 build-up match.

So when that game was cancelled, and the UEFA Nations League draw then paired us together in the summer, it was somewhat fitting.

Of those 20 games, the Three Lions have won 12 times with five draws and three victories for the Danes.

The last meeting was in September, when the sides shared a largely forgettable 0-0 draw in Copenhagen, but beyond that there's been plenty of memorable games too...

Our first meeting...

Denmark 0-0 England
26 September 1948
Idraettsparken, Copenhagen

An England team including the likes of  Billy Wright, Tommy Lawton and Stanley Matthews travelled to the Danish capital for our first ever game against each other back in 1948, but Walter Winterbottom's team were held to a goal-less draw. It was England's 241st game.

The World Cup classic...

Denmark 0-3 England
15 June 2002
Big Swan Stadium, Niigata

An unforgettable first-half performance from England in the knockout stages of the World Cup saw an early goal from Rio Ferdinand supplemented by strikes from Michael Owen and Emile Heskey to build up what was an unassailable lead for the Danes to claw back after the break.

Away day win...

Denmark 1-2 England
9 February 2011
Parken Stadium Copenhagen

Despite taking an early lead from Dan Agger's header from a Christian Eriksson cross, Fabio Capello's team equalised through Darren Bent before Ashley Young came off the bench to seal the win. Watch the goals from that game in the video above.

UEFA Nations League head-to-head