Saka smiles as Southgate eyes unlikely Euros final

There are many delicious take-aways from England’s faultless spot-kick spectacular against Switzerland, and the sweetest of them all is Bukayo Saka’s smile. A nation smiled with him.

Given the abuse he endured after his Euros’ final shoot-out failure, you’d have forgiven him for recusing himself.

You can only imagine how difficult it must have been to clear his young mind as he placed the ball on that small white circle.

If he missed, the spectre of online racial hatred could well return - wounding him, all those who love him and leaving the rest of us both angry and depressed that those views are held by people who breathe the same air we do.

No wonder Saka’s celebration stretched ear to ear.

"You can fail once and you have a choice over whether you put yourself in that position again," he said afterwards.

"I’m a guy who’s going to put myself in that position. I believed in myself."

Whatever you made of the overall performance, it was a special moment on an evening that couldn’t have ended any better for the Three Lions or Gareth Southgate.

Southgate is, by his own admission, experiencing an "unusual" tournament.

What he means by that is despite making it through to the last four, the critics are still weighing in on him, and to a lesser extent the players.

In his obligatory post-match media conference, Southgate again bristled at suggestions England had enjoyed an easy ride here. He also mentioned that the leaks about his system change had handed Switzerland an advantage three days out from the game.

His relationship with the outside world is strained, and we’re not used to it.

In more positive territory, Southgate revealed his love for his squad and also reflected on their collective ambition.

"We’ve never been to a final outside England, we’ve never won a Euros, those are two bits of history we’d love to create," he said.

And there’s the perspective.

Criticise him all you want about his team selection, his formation and how and when he makes changes during a game, but this is a man who has achieved far more than all his predecessors in the post Sir Alf Ramsey era.

Yes, Venables, Robson, Eriksson, Hoddle and the rest. All of them.

In four major tournaments he’s led England to three semi-finals and managed four consecutive quarterfinals. He’s won more knock-out games than everyone post-Ramsey combined. Everyone.

It is some record, and it should be celebrated.

What he’s done for the culture around the England team is equally important but that’s a conversation for another day.

Of course Southgate has world class players at his disposal, but then England always have had. Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole, Scholes, Ferdinand, Beckham et al didn’t win a single thing wearing Three Lions on their chest.

It’s worth remembering that when you next consider borrowing a phase from a well-known podcaster to call England under Southgate ‘sh*t’.

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