Southgate – England ready to bounce back in Bulgaria

Gareth Southgate is confident England will bounce back from their surprise 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic and get their Euro 2020 qualification back on track against Bulgaria.

The Three Lions lost their first European or World Cup qualifier in a decade when going down in Prague on Friday night, when winning would have booked them a place at the finals.

Ahead of Monday night’s Group A clash in Sofia, England boss Southgate told Sky Sports News: “We have a very honest group and are very self-reflective. They don’t need me to tell them when they haven’t played at the level they can.

“The key is always to recover from the result. We have to move forward and focus on tomorrow.

“I don’t think defeats harm teams if the reaction is good. Then what you learn from defeats and the resilience from defeats are important parts of a player’s career.

“I have always maintained that we have to qualify, and we haven’t secured that qualification yet and our focus tomorrow is to get the performance and result.”