European Qualifiers – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia
England 3-0 Scotland
England leads the group after a convincing victory over Scotland
Coach Southgate is content with the win:
“We caused some problems for ourselves but we want the team to play out from the back. At times we were sloppy in the way that we did that but it’s an area we can improve on. At the beginning of both halves, we encouraged Scotland to press but some of our use of the ball once we got through that phase was fantastic.
We played with balance, interchanged positions, there were some superb individual performances and we managed the game reasonably well as it went towards the end. I was asked to take the job for the four games and keep the country at the top of the group.
Tonight was an important moment, not just for the supporters but for the team. It’s important they came through a pressure game and won and had a feeling of what that’s like at Wembley. I’m delighted to deliver that result for everybody. Today was a step forward in the players’ belief. They have shown elements of what they are capable of individually and collectively.
They displayed lots of the things we worked on during the week, so that was pleasing. At the end we saw they can keep possession of the ball, have positional discipline and enjoy keeping possession.”
