England can harness pain of setbacks to overcome Italy, insists Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate has called on his England players to harness the pain of the recent past to inspire a triumphant future, as he prepared to kick-off his fourth tournament campaign as the manager.

England face Italy at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday night in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier – the name of the venue alone enough to stir the demons. As the favourite son of Naples, where he drove the city’s team to their only two Serie A titles to date, Maradona’s image is everywhere.

Southgate joked that he had better not talk about Maradona’s history with England but he did not hide from his team’s recent history with Italy, who beat them on penalties at Wembley in the final of the last European Championship.

Motivation will not be a problem, Southgate said, as he reflected on the imperative to start from scratch at the beginning of another campaign, showing focus and humility – and especially not when he and the squad remember how their previous game had ended. That was the World Cup quarter-final against France in Qatar, when they lost 2-1.

“Every disappointment is motivation, an opportunity to learn and to grow and, of course, the Euro final is additional motivation to us,” Southgate said. “I am not going to deny that.

“Is it harder to refresh for a new cycle? No. The way we played in Qatar and then the disappointment of losing in the quarter-final, that generates motivation in itself. I was enthused by the reaction of the players when they arrived this week. You see their excitement at coming back together, their enthusiasm for everything again.

“It is one of the greatest challenges anybody could have, trying to get England a trophy. That’s pretty straightforward. The hard part is that you have to wait