Gareth Southgate says England were lifted by 'brilliant' atmosphere at Elland Road
Friday 8 June 2018 08:40, UK
England manager Gareth Southgate believes his players received a "huge lift" from the atmosphere at Elland Road during their win over Costa Rica.
England produced a solid performance in their final warm-up game ahead of the World Cup to beat Costa Rica 2-0 at the home of Leeds United.
Marcus Rashford opened the scoring with a stunning long-range strike past Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas, before Danny Welbeck's diving header secured victory for the hosts.
Southgate was impressed with the passionate support his side received in Yorkshire and suggested he would be open to playing away from Wembley again in the future.
"It was brilliant," said Southgate. "Fantastic to see so many youngsters lining the route in, which was a huge lift.
"The atmosphere within the ground was brilliant. There was a little bit of good-natured teasing of the Manchester United lads which is to be expected - booed in, applauded off.
"Brilliant atmosphere and the passion for England up here that shone through, didn't surprise me. It is a wonderful football club with great support and Yorkshire is a brilliant county who love their sport.
"It was a great experience for us and a really good send-off."
England set off for Russia on Tuesday ahead of their opening game of the tournament against Tunisia on June 18.
Southgate admits he has some tough decisions to make regarding his starting line-up for the World Cup opener.
"I've got 11 or 12 that are going to be difficult to leave out," he said. "There is genuine competition for places. I think everybody saw that tonight.
"It wasn't the first team that played Nigeria and second team played today. We've got really good players across the two line-ups.
"In certain positions we have players that can affect the game in different ways. [Fabian] Delph as an eight is a different type of player to Dele [Alli] as an eight. Very effective tonight.
"We will have moments in games where we need those different types of players."
