Sunday’s Euro 2024 final is likely to be Gareth Southgate’s last match as England manager and he can walk away with his legacy “saved by the Bell”, polished by penalties and enhanced by some semi-final excellence, regardless of what happens against Spain.
Everyone is again singing his praises as England prepare for a second successive European Championship final but such are the fine margins in elite sport that Southgate was a minute away from a horribly ignominious end to his eight-year tenure.
After deadly dull but table-topping progress through the group stage, England were 1-0 down to Slovakia deep into stoppage time in the last 16 without having managed a shot on target.
Jude Bellingham’s wonderful bicycle kick and Harry Kane’s header in extra-time saved Southgate’s blushes, though he was still widely pilloried for sending on substitute Ivan Toney with only one minute to go.
They were behind again in Southgate’s 100th game in charge, against Switzerland, going through via a supremely confident and professional display in a shootout – something new for England for which he deserves huge credit for helping bring about.
Then, in the semi-final against the Netherlands, the England that everyone had expected to see emerged.
They went behind for the third game in a row but brushed off that setback to produce their best 45 minutes not just of the tournament but probably of the last two years.
It was still only 1-1 at halftime, and they needed Ollie Watkins’ last-gasp strike to win it, but this was no fluky scrape over the line as England were the far superior side.
Southgate, famously stubborn previously, appeared to have listened to advice as he made earlier, telling substitutions in that game, including the removal of captain Harry Kane, something he would never have considered in past tournaments.
The win, and the nature of the performance, has changed the whole mood around the team and the nation.
Southgate said before the game that he felt his players had been weighed down by expectation in the early rounds, but they played with freedom and confidence against by far the best opposition they had faced.
INCREDIBLE LUCK
Critics, and there are still many, point to Southgate’s incredible luck at stumbling across easy groups and knockout routes again and again but, even taking that into account, his record is extraordinary.
It must be remembered that he took over a team that had mustered one point in the 2014 World Cup group stage and lost to Iceland in the 2016 European Championship.
Eight years later they are appearing in a second consecutive Euros final, having reached a first World Cup semi-final since 1990 and then lost a close World Cup quarter-final to France.
Those three semi-finals in four attempts stack up against four in the previous 66 years of trying, while Sunday represents England’s first final on foreign soil after they won the 1966 World Cup and lost the 2020 Euros at Wembley.
On top of his unprecedented tournament success, Southgate can also point to a remarkable record of losing only once in 35 World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.
The former centre back is never one to blow his own trumpet but those around him and who have worked with and for him do it enough for it to be clear how highly he is respected.
“He has changed our culture within the team which is something that’s extremely difficult, having players come from different environments with their clubs to feel so comfortable within everyone’s company,” defender John Stones said last week.
“The humility that I think we have as a team as well and the winning mentality. He’s very clear in what he wants us to achieve as a team and a nation.”
Southgate has already achieved a great deal more than most, even if the path to the final was far from smooth, and it would be a fitting tribute to a talented and clearly decent man if he could finish by taking that final step to the top of the podium.
