Gareth Southgate is urging his England side to end their semi-final hoodoo by beating Denmark and reaching their first final since 1966. England have fallen at the penultimate hurdle at major tournaments on four occasions since winning the World Cup in 1966. The galling World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia three years ago was the latest but Southgate believes his side have learned from that disappointment ahead of Wednesday night's encounter. A key difference to 2018 is heightened expectation, with Southgate himself admitting their benchmark in Russia was to end England's 12-year wait for a knockout victory. The former defender now has more knockout wins than any England manager in history and will go looking for another in Wednesday's semi-final bolstered by a boisterous partisan crowd of 60,000-plus.

Source: Sky sports July 04, 2021 22:28 UTC