Eric Dier has pointed to England’s eagerness to stamp their authority on the Nations League match with Spain as evidence their youthful side will no longer be intimidated by elite opposition.
England inflicted a first competitive home defeat on their hosts for 15 years and the midfielder set the tone in Seville, first by snapping into a challenge on Sergio Busquets after 18 seconds that left the Barcelona player rattled and then slide-tackling Sergio Ramos 11 minutes in.
That last challenge in the home side’s penalty area was deemed a foul by the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak and earned Dier a caution, though both tackles served notice of the visitors’ intent. England went on to lead 3-0 at the interval.
Dier was wary of declaring England’s youngest team since 1959 as more streetwise, a term various senior players such as Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney have latched on in recent history when the national side have been guilty of naivety against established opposition but acknowledged the challenges had served a purpose.
“I don’t really like this ‘streetwise’ thing,” he said. “It’s not really my style. Everyone is different. It’s more a question of being smart at the right times. It was frustrating Spain and frustrating the crowd.
“We’ve experienced that in the same way. It’s just maturity really, knowing when to win fouls, when to take your time.
“It’s really important we respect our opponents and Ramos is one of the best of all time. But at the same time, once we start the game, it’s every man for himself and we have to put our foot down, put a marker down and be aggressive – still with respect but we have to be on the front foot and show that nothing is going to intimidate us. That’s just as important as playing good football and all the other aspects.
“Ramos is a great example. He does everything so well but at the same time he puts his foot down and he’s not going to be bullied. We have to be the same way.”
While England were not instructed to foul Spain’s players, Gareth Southgate praised his players’ approach to ensure Spain were knocked out of their rhythm early on. “The danger is you allow those players to run the game – to run the referee and everything else,” he said. “We didn’t allow that to happen and that pleased me as much as anything else. You have to show the nerve to take those guys on.”
Dier was unimpressed with the yellow card for the foul on Ramos, who complained angrily at the time but congratulated his opponent at the final whistle. “The ball was there to be won and I think I won it,” he said. “I don’t think it was a foul or a yellow card.
“I don’t remember what he [Ramos] said about the tackle. He just congratulated me at the end. We controlled those moments really well. We won fouls at the right time. We did those things really well.
“The fact there weren’t any fans at the game last Friday, and because we missed a few chances, maybe that took away from our performance against Croatia. But we controlled the game in a completely different way to how we played in the semi-final against them.
“That game kind of went under the radar and then we’ve come to Spain and used our fantastic attacking players who can counter at such pace with such quality. We were really clinical.”
