Euro 2024: 1966 World Cup video inspired England – Southgate

Gareth Southgate believes a video shown to the England team during their victorious 1966 World Cup campaign helped inspire Sunday’s 2-1 last-16 victory over Slovakia.

The Three Lions recovered from Ivan Schranz’s 25th-minute opener in spectacular fashion as Jude Bellingham’s superb 95th-minute spot-kick forced extra time. Harry Kane then nodded in the winner just 60 seconds into the 30-minute extra period to set up a quarter-final clash with Switzerland in Dusseldorf on Saturday.

After the match, in which Southgate made five substitutions, he referred to a video shown to the players at St George’s Park before the tournament, which explained the importance of each member of the team which won the sole honor major of England.

“We showed the players a presentation about 1966 and how Geoff Hurst (who scored a hat-trick in England’s 4-2 final win over West Germany) hadn’t played until the quarter-finals and how tough the team had been,” Southgate said. “From the start, the players who came into the games had a big impact. They were ready, they trained well and all the guys who came on played a big part in creating goals, steadying the ship. (Eberechi) Eze defending at the far post as a left-back for a period. Ezri Konsa coming out to stop crosses coming into the box at the end.

“Conor Gallagher rushes to stop the ball getting into our zone. That’s the spirit they have and that’s what got us over the line today.

“We just wanted to emphasize that tournaments take you to strange places, on difficult roads. The team hasn’t always been at its best. I’m sure the team would have been criticized at first, so it was just a bit of perspective really.

“We wanted to highlight the value of the team, the fact that some of the players you think will be like Jimmy Greaves end up playing a different role. The support of a player like Jimmy Armfield.

“It’s one of the things we did just to recognize the value of the group. We always reference those moments because that’s what’s part of creating a tournament-winning team. We a long way to go.”