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Gareth Southgate offers his perspective on Senegal, England’s upcoming World Cup opponent.
Gareth Southgate says he hasn’t yet watched Senegal in action at the World Cup, but he has seen England’s next opponents and believes they are a “very dangerous team.”
Tuesday night, England won their World Cup group after defeating Wales 3-0. Earlier in the day, Senegal defeated Ecuador 2-1 to take second place in Group A.
Although Southgate still has a ton of reading to do before the game on Sunday night, he has seen the Lions of Teranga’s draw with Iran from September and thinks they will pose a serious threat.
‘I haven’t been able to see their games in the tournament, I saw them play Iran in Vienna in September, so I had a good look at them then,’ said Southgate.
‘From now, from when we get on the coach we’ll be studying the games now to prepare for the game.
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‘We obviously know quite a few of the individuals. Some big players playing in big leagues across Europe, some playing in England.
‘We know that on the rankings we’ll be the favourites, we’ve got to deal with that, but we play a very dangerous team.’
The England coach was ecstatic with the team’s mentality, conceding that expectations are far higher than they were when he took over but believing that the Three Lions are in a good position to live up to them.
‘Compared to Russia there’s a different mentality across the whole group, there’s more belief,’ he said. ‘Our objectives are different, in Russia we were just thinking about whether we could win a knockout game.
‘There’s more expectation now, but more confidence and more experience of big matches.
‘I don’t now if we’re ahead of where we were last summer, but definitely we’re pleased that the objectives we set out to do, the first objective is achieved.
‘The spirit of the team is good, we’ve got most of the group on the pitch which is fabulous for the dynamic of the group, and no yellow cards as well which is a really good position for us.’