Yahoo Sports History Beckons for Southgate if England’s Best Manager Can Upset the Odds
Before Gareth Southgate took charge of England in 2016, managers of the national Men’s team had won only nine knockout games at a major tournament.
From 1872 to 2016, all but one England Men’s manager, including Roy Hodgson, Fabio Capello, and Sven-Göran Eriksson had never managed England in a major tournament final.
Only 1966 World Cup winner, Sir Alf Ramsey managed to win more than three knockout games.
After Ramsey, England did not reach beyond the Quarter-finals in a major tournament until Bobby Robson took England to fourth place at the 1990 World Cup.
England reached just one semi-final (under Terry Venables in 1996) until Gareth Southgate took charge in 2016.
Since then, Gareth Southgate has amassed nine knockout wins alone.
Southgate’s side finished fourth at the 2018 World Cup, were Runners Up at Euro 2020, and made the Quarter-finals in the 2022 World Cup.
With wins over Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands, Southgate is enjoying another successful run to the Euro 2024 final.
Tonight, Southgate takes charge of England in his second major tournament final.
A win today in the Euro 2024 final against Spain will set a new record as the most successful England Men’s manager ever, compared with all previous managers combined.
However, Opta analysis suggests Spain are favourites.
Spain have won all six of their matches at Euro 2024, already the most ever at a single edition of the competition and the Opta supercomputer makes Spain the favourites to win the Euro 2024 final, with De La Fuente’s side winning inside 90 minutes in 40.7% of its 10,000 pre-match simulations.
England win in normal time in 28.5% of sims, while the final goes to extra-time in the remaining 30.8%.
But England are unbeaten in their last six European Championship games when conceding first (W5 D1).
The stats are against England and Southgate, but history beckons if they can upset the odds.
