Gareth Southgate insists his players can cope with rising expectation levels as he backed England fans to carry them towards glory.
Southgate has led England to a World Cup semi final four years ago, the Euros final last year and he says the squad has the “experience” to go further this time.
England face Senegal in the last 16 on Sunday when Southgate’s men will be red-hot favourites and he says their know-how could be crucial as they enter the business end of the tournament. Three Lions boss Southgate said: “I think the fact that the players are used to these games is definitely a help.
“They've got a good amount of caps on the pitch, we've had experienced players to come in and the more you are in these sorts of experiences then the better you are at being able to show the best face of the team.
"We know what the build up to the next game will be like, we know the expectation will lift.”
But Southgate has praised the “fantastic” support they have received at games but has found it funny with England fans singing Jingle Bells at games.
Incredibly, there were more than 12,000 England fans supporting the team against Wales - and that could rise again for the 70,000 capacity stadium against Senegal.
There were 3,328 registered fans from the England Supporters’ Travel Club at the game with 11,953 registering on the FIFA database as England fans with many locals on the night. When asked about the chorus of Jingle Bells, Southgate said: “That won’t have happened at a World Cup before!
“We had fantastic support in the stadium, that reminded me of tournaments I played in where you've got that bank of fans and it's a very special feeling as a player to run out and hear that, to experience it.
“It was great for them that we were able to give them the result because you know it’s a game if we don't win we’re still talking about in about 30 years’ time. I thought the players handled that really well. They were calm, they played with composure and were clinical when we needed to be.”
England midfielder Kalvin Phillips also said they are buying into the feel good factor from last year’s Euros and the support is driving the players on.
Phillips added: “I think you saw it with the Euros, we had the home support near enough every game, how much it can help us on. Just to have the fans so happy and having a party back home is a nice thing to see.”
