Gareth Southgate says England are 'hungry' to win trophies ahead of Nations League semi-final
England face the Netherlands live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Thursday; Kick-off is at 7.45pm
Thursday 6 June 2019 09:48, UK
Gareth Southgate says England are "hungry" to win trophies ahead of their Nations League semi-final.
England take on the Netherlands on Thursday, live on Sky Sports Football, hoping to progress to the final and potentially win their first competitive trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
Southgate's men also have the chance to become the first side to win the Nations League, and the England boss wants to get into the habit of winning major tournaments.
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"It would be massive for all of us in an England shirt to be able to start winning trophies and to continue to win big matches," he said.
"That's the habit we want to create, that's the expectation we want to create and we've got players who are so hungry to do that.
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"They're no longer happy to just come and perform and play well, they've got high expectations. They're getting used to winning with their clubs and we're starting to develop a winning mentality with the national team.
"We expect ourselves to play well and win matches and we're doing that more often than not. The great challenge for us over the next few days is whether we can do that in a semi-final and that's a challenge we're looking forward to."
Almost a year on from England's remarkable run to the semi-finals of the World Cup, they are preparing for the Nations League finals as arguably an even stronger side than they were in Russia.
Southgate has continued to evolve the national team since then and, after memorable wins over Spain and Croatia, England are two games away from getting their hands on some silverware.
"When you play for England there's no free hit at anything but there was less expectation at the World Cup. Now I feel that we've gained confidence from going to the semi-finals and we didn't want that to be the end of it," Southgate added.
"We feel that we've got players who are capable to win things so we always want to be at the latter stages of tournaments where the big games are and to have the opportunity to win trophies. That's what this tournament provides over the next few days."
