Gareth Southgate proud to show his team at the World Cup

Roberto Martinez gave a more courageous face after Belgium's defeat, claiming that a win this weekend would still be important, but Gareth Southgate admits that it could happen the third place of Saturday in St. Petersburg.

The England manager however insists that his players will get up and play with pride one last time before returning home after a World Cup that he hopes, over time, to be seen as a stepping stone to bigger things.

"I could not be more proud of the team," said the 47-year-old, who was predictable, as he pondered a semi-final in which, did he acknowledged, the best decision of Croatia had been a major factor.

"Mentally, their understanding of big games, of making important decisions, has come to the fore.They [his players] have to go through great matchmaking experiences to become a team that can win.I think that if you look at many other teams that have won, maybe they started winning a quarter, semifinal or final, but not quite.

"I think it's clear for everyone this has been done in terms of the level of performance and unity of the group. And each group must go through the process of improvement. "

In a hurry to develop the broader positive points, the manager was reluctant, suggesting that he and his players should" suffer the result "for a little while and" not go too fast "but, at least he acknowledged, England has exceeded the expectations that have accompanied them to Russia and must now deliver on the new ones they have created for themselves.

"We will try to find the right one. balance, "he said." To acknowledge that tonight was a wonderful opportunity for us, and to accept that you can not guarantee that this chance will come back. But we want to be a team that regularly reaches the quarterfinals and semi-finals and I think we've proved to our fans now that it's possible. . . we proved to ourselves that it is possible. Hope we have set a new benchmark.

"We are not the finished article," he continued. "Against the best teams, we have not managed to get the wins, but we have won a lot of matches that England has not won." Tonight, considering the possession we have early planes, you would probably have hoped for another goal, but we did very well, I think, to withstand a bit of a bout.

"The additional time was more regular, I think we were there. we probably got ahead and even if I had to look back, I suspect that our chances were as good as theirs during the game.

"Croatia is a great team, with outstanding players. was going well enough to at least take the game beyond the extra time – but you have to give them great credit for the way they continued to win the match Physically, we lost [Kieran] Trippier by the end but there were others who had All gave and who were out of breath. "

His counterpart, Zlatko Dalic, has not been so diplomatic in victory with the 51 years of … Dalic remembers being in France in 1998 for the group stages, but he had to return home before the Croatians were beaten in the semifinal final stage by the hosts

"Maybe the good lord gives us the chance to settle the score," he said with a smile before observing with less humor than: "The experts who said that England would progress towards the finals tonight were not experts. If they were, they would have known that Croatia was the best team and we showed it. "