GARETH SOUTHGATE will order his England lions to take France to the throat in the quarter finals of the World Cup.
He believes his attacking team is capable of finally beating a top country in the knockout phase of a major tournament on foreign soil on Saturday.
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The Three Lions are the top scorers in Qatar with 12 and he will urge his stars to chase goals as in victories over IranWales and Senegal.
Boss Southgate said: “We’ve made a lot of history in the last four and a half years. Not all good! But that’s the big challenge.
“What we talked about for Senegal was to keep up the relentless pressure, not to back down when we are ahead, to make sure we keep the intensity of our game.
“So we have to do that now against the world champions.
“If you look back at our previous tournaments, you see the teams that knocked England out.
“So that’s the next test for this team.”
Still, Southgate believes England‘s record in previous tournaments has prepared them for the France confrontation.
The Three Lions reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, then made it to the Euro 2020 final, defeating Germany along the way, before losing to Italy on penalties.
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Southgate, 52, added: “There’s a lot of experience with these moments and the players know they’ve had to win games in different ways, they’ve had to come from behind in big games.”
England have met France twice before at the World Cupboth winning.
In 1966, Sir Alf Ramsey’s heroes triumphed 2-0 at Wembley in the group stage, courtesy of a Roger Hunt double, on their way to winning the Jules Rimet Trophy.
But it is the 3-1 victory in Bilbao in 1982 that is Southgate’s most vivid childhood memory of the World Cup.
Southgate said: “1982 was the first World Cup I can remember watching England.
“That tournament also had the Brazilian team of Zico, Eder, Falcao and Socrates, so that was part of falling in love with the game.
“I also remember the sticker albums and the songs stuck in my head.”
Bryan Robson scored twice in that famous 3-1 opening game win – the first after 27 SECONDS.
Southgate said: “Bryan was my hero and I remember both of his goals in ’82.
“I don’t know how manager Ron Greenwood was perceived at the time, but England went out of that tournament without losing a game.”
