Gareth Southgate has revealed his England players were "fearful" of failure during the early stages of Euro 2024, but says their mindset has shifted to making history ahead of Wednesday's semi-final against the Netherlands.
England face the Dutch here in Dortmund, with Southgate aiming to lead the side to a first final on foreign soil, with Spain awaiting the winners on Sunday.
England were underwhelming in the group stage, beating Serbia 1-0 in the opening game before turgid draws with Denmark and Slovenia.
They have continued to be below par in the knockouts but built momentum after coming from behind to beat Slovakia and Switzerland, the latter on penalties.
Southgate admitted his players were initially scared of "what could go wrong" at the tournament - a dynamic he has not seen "for a few years" - but says they are now focused on what can be achieved this week.
"We know we didn’t start the tournament well," Southgate said on Tuesday. "For me, that’s been a fascinating experience to see the team have been fearful in the opening part of it, almost concerned about what could go wrong.
"We haven’t had that for a few years. Maybe that was expectation, maybe that was a lot of external things as well.
The team were fearful in the opening part of it, almost concerned about what could go wrong
"But now they’re very much in a ‘what’s achievable, what’s possible’ sort of mindset. I think we saw a truer reflection of ourselves in the last game [against Switzerland] and there was a lot within that performance to build on and take into the game tomorrow."
Asked how the players' mindset had changed, Southgate said: "We definitely spoke about it.
"When you can sense that feeling you need to confront it. It’s no use avoiding it and hoping it will go away.
"In the end we sort of had to grind it out on the pitch. The Denmark game, the point we got, there’s a picture of the players looking distraught.
"They’ve got a point that essentially ensured us qualifying. Every other team was celebrating with their fans at that and we were on our knees.
"So I had to correct how they were viewing things. But of course that feeling was being reinforced so vocally and actively outside and I think they were picking up on that too much.
"Now we’re in the real business end of the tournament which of course given that’s only the third time in however many years, that’s not to be underestimated but for us as a group, the great thing is we’re not sitting here happy with a semi-final, we want to go further and our aim is to come here and win it and we are now two games away from doing that.”
Southgate will have been involved in four of the six major tournament semi-finals in England's history, although his side fell short in the last four of the 2018 World Cup, losing to Croatia after extra time, before being beaten on penalties by Italy in the final of the last Euros.
The manager reminded his players not to be "burdened" by the weight of previous failures and says the chance to "change history" is spurring them on.
"We’ve never been to a final outside our own shores," said Southgate, who has a full 26-man squad to choose from at Signal Iduna Park.
"These are opportunities to make a difference and that’s how we have to look at it. We don’t want to be burdened by what’s happened before.
"We’ve got to use this opportunity to change history as a motivation and that’s how the players see it. It’s about their moment now, nothing that’s gone on in the past, none of that is their fault or concern."
Southgate must make a decision on whether to start Luke Shaw after the left-back returned from four months out with a hamstring injury against Switzerland, while Marc Guehi is available again after suspension.
