England booked their placed in the Euro 2024 semi-finals in dramatic fashion last night, overcoming Switzerland in a penalty shootout in Dusseldorf.
It was yet another poor performance from England, who retreated into their shell as the game went on despite a reasonably promising first half performance. Having fallen 1-0 behind in the 75th minute, they would equalise with their first shot on target of the match five minutes later.
They never really threatened from that point onwards, although their five penalty takers would show fantastic composure from the spot to get Gareth Southgate's team over the line.
England will now face the Netherlands in the semi-final on Wednesday evening.
READ HERE: Ireland U21 Star Admits Surprise At Way His Celtic Career Has Ended
Gareth Southgate not impressed with question after Switzerland win
England have performed poorly in this tournament, producing a level of form that would not normally be good enough to reach the final four of a European Championships. However, it is fair to say that their run in Germany has been helped by a rather kind draw.
England have so far managed to avoid all of the other big guns at Euro 2024, with the likes of Germany, Spain, France, and Portugal all on the other side of the draw.
This is the second consecutive Euros that the English have benefitted from such a draw, having had a relatively easy run up to the final at Euro 2020.
This very point was raised to Gareth Southgate by a German reporter in his post-match press conference. It's fair to say that it did not go down all that well.
Reporter: You reached the (Euro 2020) final three years ago. The opponents you had to play was Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic, a poor German team, Ukraine, Denmark.
Southgate: A poor German team? It had about eight Champions League winners in yeah?
Reporter: A poor German team three years ago.
Southgate: I know, I'm saying they had about eight Champions League winners in the team.
Reporter: Yeah, but playing poor. This time it's Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Swizterland. No Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, France, Portugal. Is it better for you to play better football if the team on the other side is better, or are you afraid of coming up to the next one or two matches?
A win over Germany in a major tournament knockout round is an impressive feat, although it's fair to say that the one in 2021 was a far from a vintage German side. Indeed, they would fail to make it out of their group at the 2022 FIFA World Cup less than 18 months later.
Gareth Southgate would go on to give this response to the initial question:
Look, the teams we've played are because we won our group. If you go back through history, England had different routes to the final because we didn't win our group.
I understand of course, you'd rather not have to jump the Grand National to win the tournament.
Most teams, when you have back-to-back games, two, three, four games against big nations the margins are so fine and then those games end up quite even - you win one, you lose one, so it's very tough to go through those processes.
I'm not really sure what to say, it's the madness of this job, but it's been an enjoyable night and I will try to keep it that way.
It is likely that England will face their toughest test of the tournament so far in their next game, with the Netherlands certainly having a more talented bunch of players than any of the other opposition they have up to this point at Euro 2024.
It will be interesting to see if they can continue to plod along at the tournament despite producing consistently poor performances. The likes of Portugal and Greece have shown us in the past that a lack of form is not a barrier to winning this particular tournament.
SEE ALSO: Kevin Kilbane Spots Strange Trend That Could See England Win Euro 2024
