Southgate frustrated that England Euro 2020 win over Germany ‘overlooked’, with ‘benchmark’ set

Gareth Southgate feels that England’s Euro 2020 win over Germany was overlooked, adding that Hansi Flick’s side remain the “benchmark” for success.

The Three Lions have had a mixed record against their rivals ahead of Tuesday’s Nations League meeting. Defeats at Euro 96 and the 2010 World Cup still loom large for England amid some better results.

Indeed, England have claimed three wins in their past seven meetings with Germany, as well as a draw.

And the 2-0 win for England in the Euro 2020 last 16 was a major Three Lions boost.

Supplied by Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, the victory gave England huge momentum. But despite the eventual defeat to Italy in the final, Southgate has labelled the victory crucial to his side’s journey.

He added ahead of the latest meeting that he thinks the win did not get the credit it deserved.

“For me, Germany and Brazil are still the benchmark in terms of countries that have regularly and consistently won tournaments,” Southgate told a press conference.

“In some respects the result in the summer was overlooked, I’m not sure why – the quality of the [Germany] team was still very high, World Cup winners everywhere, Champions League winners everywhere, so really experienced at those big occasions.

“Even when everyone talks about the 5-1 here [in 2001], they ended up in the World Cup final on the back of that qualifying campaign.

“So, you have to respect what they’ve been as a country and what they are as a country in footballing terms.

“That mentality is what we’re trying to create. We’ve got to keep trying to get to latter stages of competitions. Games like [Tuesday] are brilliant for us – that’s exactly the kind of test we need.”

Tuesday’s clash with Germany in Munich forms part of a