Gareth Southgate says England’s Euro 2020 showdown with Scotland can give the whole country a lift - and he is desperate for fans to be at Wembley for it.
England will face Scotland in the group stage of the tournament next summer after the Scots beat Serbia in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to qualify for their first major tournament since the 1998 World Cup in France.
Southgate, speaking after England beat Ireland 3-0 in Thursday night’s friendly at Wembley, said: “Let’s hope we will have a full house, that would be a super occasion. That would give, in what is a difficult time for everybody, something to look forward to. Let’s hope we have got full crowds back in the stadium for that.
“I would like to congratulate Steve Clarke, he is a super guy and I am really pleased for him. For Scotland, it has been a long time for them. They have done really well. They have got a lot of young players coming through, they are a team who are improving very quickly.”
England cruised to victory against Ireland as Jack Grealish shone and Harry Winks also did his Euro 2020 hopes no harm with an impressive display.
Southgate said: "I was very pleased with the way the boys played. A lot of young players, a lot of inexperienced players, we used the ball very well, created a lot of chances, could have been more comfortable if we'd taken some of those chances but overall very pleased.
"We were a bit slow at the start but that's understandable. It's not a team that have had a lot of time to work together. The longer they went on, some of the interplay, some of the play between our attacking 10s and our wing-backs in particular was very good."
