Gareth Southgate has revealed what he told Jordan Pickford and the rest of his players at half-time to help inspire them to victory over Denmark in the Euro 2020 semi-finals.
England went in level at the break after a Simon Kjaer own goal cancelled out Mikkel Damsgaard’s free-kick, having endured a nervous first half at Wembley Stadium.
The Everton goalkeeper in particular failed to show the standards he had demonstrated earlier in the tournament, twice gifting possession to the Danes on the edge of his own box as his distribution came under scrutiny.
But despite conceding his first goal of the tournament, Pickford fought back after the break to more than play his part in the Three Lions reaching their first major final since 1966.
And Southgate paid tribute to his players for how they responded after falling behind against Denmark, with victory setting up a final meeting with Italy on Sunday.
“That's down to him (Jordan),” Southgate said when explaining his side’s response.
“We just talked to the whole group about avoiding the sorts of needless mistakes that created some tension in that first half.
“We played some short passes and were a little bit slow on some of the moments of transition when they were able to press us and win the ball back very quickly when we had just won it.
“Most of the opportunities they had were from counter-attacks when we conceded the ball quite cheaply really.
“We did discuss that as a group but the players deserve the credit for reacting the right way at the right moment.”
