Gareth Southgate is relishing England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Kosovo on Tuesday night after hearing his opposition manager’s pre-match comments.
At his pre-match press conference, Bernard Challandes descended into a screaming rant in which he declared his team will give the Three Lions a ‘crazy game’ with aggressive ‘crazy pressing’.
When asked about the comments, Southgate told talkSPORT’s Nigel Adderley: “Yeah, it’d make it a proper game rather than a sort of exercise of forwards against defence.
“So I understand why teams come and do that, because of the attacking threat that we have.
“But I wasn’t expecting Kosovo to approach the game the way that Bulgaria did.
“I’m not surprised the comments of the coach because that’s the way they’ve played their football.
“Very much front foot, they press high and they’ve got some good players.”
Kosovo have raised eyebrows in the early stages of this qualifying campaign as they currently sit second behind England in Group A.
However, Southgate insisted he’s not surprised by their success and added: “That region has always produced outstanding footballers.
“They have the passion that often comes with a relatively newly formed country and the pride that brings through the struggles that they’ve had.
“But, as a team, they’ve got some very good players and we’re certainly well prepared for the game.”
