England football boss says his team is '15 years behind Spain' ahead of tomorrow's big match

ENGLAND’S interim boss Gareth Southgate has said his team is ’15 years behind Spain’ ahead of the two countries’ match tomorrow.

While FIFA places England just two rankings below Spain, Southgate insists that the latter remains the benchmark for European football.

“They have a project that has been in place for 15 years plus in choosing Julen Lopetegui because of his work with the junior teams. Very little has changed in the way of playing in that period of time. The difficulty comes in stopping it!

“Until we develop as a team, we are playing against teams who are further advanced in their way of playing. That’s the challenge. That’s why those games are tougher.

“I don’t think it’s the case of the occasion, or freezing because they’re big teams, it’s because the challenge is harder against better players.”

Spain will play England at home in the Wembley Stadium tomorrow night.

Kick off is at 9pm UK time.

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Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

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