Southgate says England accept the expectation as one of the favourites for Euro

Gareth Southgate is adamant England believe they can win Euro 2024 after his players booked their place in Germany with a convincing win over Italy.

The visitors took a shock lead through Gianluca Scamacca but England stormed back courtesy of two Harry Kane strikes that took his international tally to 61 and another from Marcus Rashford, as Southgate’s side qualified for next summer’s European Championships.

England’s impressive display will serve to reinforce the view that they will head to the tournament as one of the favourites, while Jude Bellingham added to his burgeoning reputation as one of the world’s best player with another brilliant performance.

‘We have to accept the expectation, the reality is we are one of the teams capable (of winning the tournament) - we are comfortable with that,’ said Southgate.

‘The biggest things - mentality we have, good technical players, good physicality - but we have to keep winning big matches like tonight. We showed real composure and took control of the game.

‘There is more to come from this team. This was the toughest qualifying group, with the seedings. People have criticised us for not beating the top teams enough. But we have performed really well.

‘So hungry, so eager to learn, so together. And you saw that in the performance tonight. We said before that mentality was the main thing. The performance was relentless tonight.

'What was really pleasing was that when we went behind we stayed calm and used the ball calmly from the back. In other big games we have lost the ball too easily. Our forwards worked so hard. When your front players play like that it is a great thing for the team.

On Bellingham, the England head coach added: ‘His mentality is incredible. For someone of his age