EURO 2024 England vs Spain final: Gareth Southgate says, 'we know we have to get this trophy to really feel the respect'

NEW DELHI: The English often engage in self-deprecating humor, but for others, it can come across as a display of arrogance and entitlement.
"Football's Coming Home," the anthem of the England soccer team, has echoed through the streets of German cities over the past month and will be sung with even greater enthusiasm in Berlin in the coming day.
On Sunday, England will face Spain in the European Championship final, presenting the underperforming birthplace of soccer with an opportunity to secure a major men's title for the first time since their 1966 World Cup victory on home turf.
"I'm not a believer in fairy tales," England coach Gareth Southgate said on Saturday, "but I'm a believer in dreams."
Southgate has been a key figure in England's arduous journey, marked by painful exits, close calls, and national distress over the years.
As England's coach since 2016, Southgate led the team to their first major final since 1966, only to suffer defeat against Italy in a penalty shootout during the 2021 Euro final.
Twenty-five years prior, Southgate, then a modest defender, missed a crucial penalty in England's shootout loss to Germany in the Euro 1996 semifinals.
The "Football's Coming Home" anthem originates from the "Three Lions" song, released before Euro 1996.
One line in the song referred to "30 years of hurt." Now, it has been 58 years of hurt, and the fans continue to sing it.
"It has been going on for years and years," remarked Justin Tucknott, a 54-year-old England fan and business analyst, as he enjoyed a beer at a bar near Olympiastadion on a sun-drenched evening in the German capital.
"We're going to keep singing it until it does come home. And when it does, the words will be changed slightly."
Gareth Southgate has improved England's prospects of ending their nearly 60-year men's title drought, guiding the team to consecutive Euro finals and a World Cup semifinal in 2018.
He has had to transform the mindset and culture within a squad that consistently features some of the English Premier League's top talents, the world's most popular and watched domestic league.
Despite their fame and wealth, the players may have assumed they had a divine right to win international titles as frequently as they do at the club level. Southgate quickly dispelled this notion and instilled a different perspective in them.
"We have tried to change the mindset from the start, tried to be more honest about where we were as a football nation," Southgate said. "I travelled to World Cups and European Championships as an observer and watched highlights reels of matches that were on the big screens - and we weren't in any of them.
"They only showed the finals and big games. We needed to change that. We had high expectations but they didn't match where we were, performance-wise. … We've come through a lot of big nights now, a lot of records have been broken, but we know we have to get this trophy to really feel the respect of the rest of the football world."
England's start to Euro 2024 was slow - very slow - relying on crucial moments from key players to progress to the semifinals. There, they delivered their best performance to date, but still required a goal from Ollie Watkins exactly on the 90-minute mark to overcome the Netherlands.
"It builds resilience and belief," England captain Harry Kane said.
As England heads into the final, their confidence is growing, and much of this can be attributed to their coach.
"Tomorrow, I don't have any fear what might happen," Southgate said, "because I have been through everything. I want the players to feel that fearlessness.
"If we are not afraid to lose, it gives us a better chance of winning."