Gareth Southgate has plenty of fond memories to look back on during his time as England manager, from the country’s first penalty shootout victory at a World Cup, against Colombia at Russia 2018, to Ollie Watkins’ dramatic extra-time winner against the Netherlands this summer. But he is in no doubt about the pinnacle of his eight-year reign, the moment when it felt like his football team were almost single-handedly leading their country out of its pandemic slump.
“Definitely beating Denmark in the semi-final at Wembley,” Southgate tells Lauren Laverne in his appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday. “I mean, both semi-finals that we won were dramatic games – Holland in the last Euros, Denmark in the previous one – but just that feeling and that understanding that this was going to be the first final for 55 years, and that we were creating another bit of history in our journey as a team.
