London: England manager Gareth Southgate hopes his young team have started to win back supporters following successive 0-0 draws against heavyweights Germany and Brazil.
England endured a torrid 2016, humiliated by Iceland at the European Championship before new manager Sam Allardyce was brought down by a newspaper sting, hastening Southgate’s appointment.
But having qualified for next year’s World Cup, they made light of a glut of absentees to hold Brazil and Germany — the world’s two top-ranked teams — to goalless draws in their last two games of 2017.
“We’re building and Brazil are pretty close to the finished article. They’re a settled team, an outstanding team,” Southgate said.
“We’re at a different point on our journey, but we will take huge belief from what we’ve done.
“I think and hope the English public have seen that these boys have given absolutely everything and have played with pride and passion.
“I hope there’s a little bit more of a connection between the supporters and the team.”
But Liverpool’s Joe Gomez shone on his full debut, earning the man-of-the-match award for successfully shackling Neymar, and Leicester City’s Harry Maguire, making only his third appearance, grew into the game impressively.
Southgate praised Gomez, 20, for his “calmness” and hailed John Stones for a “really mature” performance at the heart of such an inexperienced three-man back line.
“We can look at areas that we need to improve, but we’ve found so many positives in terms of players who’ve performed at this level for the first time, the likes of Maguire,” Southgate said.
“It’s not going to get much tougher than it was for them tonight. They will gain huge confidence and as a group it’ll stand them in really good stead moving forward.”
