Gary Neville reacts to England reaching the Euro 2024 final

Gary Neville reacts to England reaching the Euro 2024 final

we’re going to get more on that historic night last night right now England through to a second consecutive Euros final yeah delighted to say Gary Neville joins us now live from Germany um Gary brilliant to see you thank you so much for jumping on I know it’s pretty early over there still so thank you very much great to see you and before we get into it just want to talk about the size of the achievement because look a second consecutive Euro final fit England it feels like you know in recent years fans have sort of become used to going deep in tournaments certainly under Gareth Southgate anyway but for you tell us just about how big an achievement this is it’s an incredible achievement I think to get to all Gareth tournaments I even put the quarterfinal in guar as being um a decent achievement as well they were playing against a fantastic French team and thought played really well in that match and you can sometimes come out the wrong side of a game like that I just think in all four tour they’ve achieved their maximum they’ve um hung in there they’ve played good football they’ve had a good spirit they’ve been together and Gareth I said it last night on television he is the most um experienced and intelligent um Englishman that’s I suppose ever lived when it comes to actually experiencing tournaments in men’s football um you know the way in which he’s obviously seen tournaments from a Youth Level the way in which he’s seen tournaments as a player and now seeing tournaments as a coach he’s using all that experience that he’s had to be able to sort of navigate England through to the sort of last stages of these tournaments and the players have needed guidance along the way they’ve needed calmness and composure because with England there is always a lot of scrutiny and there’s been scrutiny in this tournament and to have to cope with that and um if you like unblock those paths that exist in your way as an England manager it’s been absolutely outstanding particularly for him but also for this group players particularly the ones who’ve been there for for the last four years in its in totality because to get to two Euro finals is amazing yeah it is isn’t it and England were brilliant Gary last night there’s no doubt about it but they were helped with with one should we say controversial penalty decision in that first half you and Ian right had a very interesting Strikers versus Defenders view on it in the TV studio last night you do you still feel as strongly about it this morning yeah yeah I mean look we’ve had some bad decisions over the last 20 30 40 years so we’re in a position where we might got the right side of one that’s been favorable to us last night in fact I think we did um so I’m not sort of talking about it from that perspective but I’m talking about it just purely from the defender Club point of view that you know I saw the um Denmark went out of a tournament a couple of weeks ago because of that hand ball where you know the lad basically sort of just was you know trying to trying to sort of move his body towards it was ridiculous and last night I mean you have to be able in the box when the ball’s sort of if you like freeing in the air to be able to go and try and block a shot as a Defender if we’d have gone out of the tournament last night to that decision I would have been absolutely fuming um I’m less fuming because we haven’t gone out of the tournament and obviously it’s Holland that have gone out so obviously we don’t care as much about it but if we’re talking about it from a purely football point of view I thought it was a terrible decision I didn’t think it was a penalty at all um Ju Just to stick with the the positives then Gary obviously Harry Kane put the penalty away load has been said this tournament about whether he’s fully fit about his sharpness I had to sort of double check and and triple check this stat when I read it because it it sounded incredible that his ninth goal in knockout stages of major tournaments more than any other European player in history when you read that you go that that is staggering um just how important is he to England but but even when he’s not fully fit of course he’s important I mean I’ve sat with Wayne Rooney four weeks ago a week so before the started and he said that Harry Kane in his opinion and I never thought of it like this was the greatest England player ever now that is sort of massive praise from someone who’s been around the block with England Wayne Rooney and I wouldn’t disagree I would fight to disagree with him either I think Harry Kane’s been absolutely Sensational his record you know I always called him when he was at Tottenham he’s like gold you just know full well that he’s going to deliver for you he’s solid character um I think he is obviously below his best in this tournament it does look like he is carrying something and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it emerged in a week or two that he’s had issues during this tournament with something that he’s been sort of you know trying to bandage up but you look at that record now and you think about who he’s up there with some of the sort of great Strikers and goal scorers of all time are on that list and obviously kilan mbappe is seen as being the best player in the world right now so look Harry Kane is someone that ultimately at this moment in time he won’t be dropped by Gareth Southgate I know there is sort of consens that people think that we’d be better without him but it wouldn’t send a great message I don’t think to the squad internally I think he’s he’s very clearly their leader I think Gareth Southgate um has full um and total faith in him and I also think if you’re the opposition team he is still England’s sort of Talisman he’s the man who’s gone over to Germany this year and sort of ripped it up from a goal scoring perspective so I think if the Spanish team on Sunday or a fantastic team are looking at our team Sheet I think they’ll be thinking that Harry Kane’s going to start um and obviously we’ve seen last night and in previous games what Ivan Tony and what Ole Watkins did last night that we’ve got brilliant players to come off the bench and be able to disrupt what might be a game that’s not going well for England Gary the players and Southgate have received a lot of criticism on the way to the final but after this result I mean results change everything don’t they do you see there being a real togetherness between the players and the manager and the fans leading into that final now oh definitely I mean to be fair Gareth did a really honest interview before the game last night which was shown on on the program where he talked about the fact that this sort of fear of embarrassment had sort of hit his Squad in the first couple of weeks of the tournament and that they were so sort of like tense and they were sort of playing with sort of yeah they were playing as if they were a little bit scared and a little bit in fear which is something that’s happened to England teams over many many tournaments over many many years and G’s done really well to remove that but you know the way in which I think Jude Bellingham spoke after a game and others and GIS salet they alluded to it again and they got criticism in the first part of the tournament because they were roll in the dice um you know we were 80 seconds away from going out of this tournament and that would have been a massive shock but also a huge disappointment with the talent that’s in this group they’ve had the resilience they’ve had the knowhow the tournament sort of Savvy um experience to be able to get through those difficult moments the sort of scoring the last goals in two games now obviously getting through on penalties but what we started to see last night particularly in the first half was the ability of the players and the fact that in in the first half you know Ronald kumman had to change it he had to beef up his Midfield because particularly Phil Fen thought kobby Mania were outstanding last night Phil forden was a joy in that first half he was just watching him sort of play was was with this idea that we sort of how why can’t he play like he does for his Club what we saw in that first half last night was was world class class um the way in which he accepted the ball it was brilliant to see an English player play like that in such a big game uh and I think that what we what we’ve wanted to see is more of that during the tournament now there are two reasons obviously why that’s not happened one is that we’ve been played against teams that have been very deep and very solid and that’s made it difficult for us and they’ve been not been as adventurous as maybe the the Dutch team were in the first half but also this thing that Gareth alluded to of this sort of fear if you like of going out of a tournament early and not achieving what they should do as obviously hampered them and they’ve allowed criticism to sort of soak in for the first time they’ll be better for it they’ll be more experience for it they’ll learn from it but the most important thing is that they’ve got through those difficult moments and those bits of criticism that will always come your way and to get to a final now their confidence will be Skyhigh albeit they are playing against probably the team of the tournament so far Spain yeah well just to pick up on that then well while maybe England have have sort of been building through this tournament I mean Spain have just been the stand outside of the event so far I mean just just how tough is this final going to be on Sunday really tough I mean before the tournament I don’t think there were many people shouting Spain I think they were fifth or sixth favorites I certainly wasn’t and but from very early on in the tournament they’ve just had the right balance um in their team they’ve had a consistency to them the two Central Midfield players Ruiz and rodri are absolutely fantastic I think they’ve been outstanding we’re going to really have to work hard to stop that you know all their attacks at source through them um and Gareth will be working on that with the players I’m sure in this next few days they’ve got the two exciting wide players who are Sensational it will be really difficult but England team the England team in this tournament have found a way they found a way to be able to navigate through the sort of the the obstacles that have been in their way and the obstacles that have been on their path and they’re going to have to do that again on Sunday but you know the Spanish have been the standout team during this tournament and what I would say is that we’re getting better gradually getting better each game and starting to grow and starting to perform and you starting to see some of the habits and performance levels from players that we’ve seen in Premier League matches and previous England games so it’s going to be a brilliant Final on Sunday everyone’s looking forward to it and the fact that we’re in there is just Sensational but like I think now now just feels like I don’t know if it’s written in the stars with what’s happened in this last 10 days because of the last minute goals nearly being 80 seconds from out of the tournament the penalties obviously last night Ole Watkins coming on and scoring late on all these things sort of just sometimes give you a feeling that something’s happening now they’ve obviously got to get through the game on Sunday they can’t rely upon that the players but in sports sometimes you just get a sense that maybe the time is now when youve seen the challenges that the players and Gareth have come through in this last three or four weeks uh well really hope it is written in the stars um Gary thank you so much for joining us this morning lovely to cheat to you as always and we’ll speak to you soon thank you [Music]

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Gary Neville shares his thoughts on England’s semi-final against Netherlands and discusses the Three Lions chances in the Euro 2024 final against Spain.

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