Euro 2024 final: From trolls for Pizza Hut ad, Southgate has a shot at redemption again

Remember Gareth Southgate’s Pizza Hut ad before the Qatar World Cup which subjected him to a barrage of trolls? The England manager, whose crucial penalty miss in the Euro ’96 semi-finals against Germany had scuttled their dreams of ending a major title drought, had continued to haunt him for a long time during his playing days.

The former England defender regretted the decision to do the ad, which also featured former England stars Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle – two other penalty misses in Italia’90 – but it’s history as he seems to be on the cusp of immortality in his country now. Graduating from his role as the manager of the youth England team in 2016, Southgate guided them to the semi-finals of the 2018 Fifa World Cup and back-to-back Euro finals in 2021 and then again in Germany.

Listen to him in an interview back in 2012: ‘’It (the penalty miss) affected me massively afterwards and it still does to this day. Every single day now, when I walk down the street, it is always mentioned to me. Of course, it’s annoying.’’

Well, three years after Harry Kane & Co had fallen prey to shootout nerves in the final against Italy, Southgate gets another shot at redemption on Sunday. Standing between his dream and the Euro crown is Luis de la Fuente’s Spain, a young team with some of the most prodigious talents in the game in their ranks.

Love him or hate him for the defensive mindset that has typified the Southgate regime, here is a manager who believes in getting the job done. It could have been a different story if the highly controversial penalty in the semi-final against The Netherlands had not brought them back in the game and the fact remains that his dour strategy had often held them back as a team despite the presence of such exciting and attacking talents in the ranks like a Jude Bellingham or Phil Foden.

So much so that the travelling English fans hurled plastic cups at Southgate after one of the early games, while one of the few abiding memories of the early part of their campaign had been the stunning bicycle kick by Bellingham against Slovakia and little else. However, there is no denying the fact that the current England bunch had shown the character to wriggle out of tough situations on more than one occasion – something which their illustrious predecessors have often buckled under.

‘’This showed the modern England way but also the resilience and the character of the group,’’ Southgate said after their 2-1 win in the semi-final. ‘’We have had some incredible nights. These games have been dramatic because the goals have come so late,’’ he said. As an English international used to their so-year-yet-so-far syndrome, he knows the thin margin between agony and ecstasy – and who knows which way the match would have headed but for Ollie Watkins’ last-gasp matchwinner in the semis on Wednesday.

England could well go into Sunday’s final as the underdogs but the tag suits them. There is already an air of anticipation building in the UK as a Daily Star report suggests that Prince William, the supremo of their football governing body FA, will spearhead a royal reception should they become champions, set to be followed by King Charles honouring the players.

Sir George Best, the only surviving member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team, has meanwhile urged the administration to declare a bank holiday to celebrate a possible triumph. The Euro title may not exactly be like the ‘cup coming home,’ but to put an end to a nearly 60-year-old trophy drought will be huge.

And the country will be indebted to a former defender, lumped with the baggage of history of their penalty woes for long, to lead the road to redemption!