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England’s players now expect the target to be tournament victory, Gareth Southgate revealed, as the team stand on the brink of Euro 2024 qualification. The manager said that lifting the trophy was now the aim in a team meeting at the start of this international break, and a lot of it was to do with how the squad has evolved over the past six years. England play Ukraine in Wroclaw on Saturday and victory could see them qualify this week depending on other results. With qualification already virtually guaranteed, though, it is the trophy itself they are aiming for. “I think now they need that challenge,” Southgate said. “The players don’t want us to come in and be talking differently, and we’ve got evidence over a long period of time that we should have that belief. Of course, you’ve got to go and deliver it and a lot can happen in terms of availability of players and everything, but for us that has to be the longer-term aim.” Southgate pointed to how even the level in training is always top level, and they never have to be told to lift it. “There is definitely belief. They definitely have huge desire. They have had a lot of success at club level and for a lot of them the missing piece is something with England which they know would be bigger than anything else they have achieved. The whole group are determined on that. They are really responsive and I can't speak how highly we feel to be able to work with them every day. We never have to walk on the training pitch and criticise the levels or question the attitude towards the training. And so the key is to transfer that on to the pitch. We have to do that tomorrow night. “We are pleased the mentality of the players has been exceptional and they are grasping the challenge and grasping our push that we have got to get better and better. They have started well in this group and the positive thing is that it is 12 points but we cannot just rest on where we are and we have to keep improving as a team. So, tomorrow is another chance to take another step forward and for other players to come into the side because we are missing three or four from the last couple of games.” While the inclination is to cast Euro 2024 as a last chance for this squad, Southgate doesn’t see it like that, due to how it is evolving. “I think the nice thing is that, some players, it will be probably their last chance to win something, some will be at their peak, and some have still got space to grow. I don’t see the team falling off a cliff after the next tournament. There’s enough youngsters that still have their best years ahead of them, in fact. So it’s a good balance.” Read More Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham is one of a kind, says Gareth Southgate Harry Kane hopes for club and country delight in bid to end trophy hoodoo Gareth Southgate won’t be swayed by ‘external reaction’ over Jordan Henderson

Eddie Howe is confident his Newcastle players will not be daunted by the challenge of securing Champions League qualification as the season draws to a close. The Magpies have four games in which to cement a top-four Premier League finish as they, Manchester United, Liverpool, Brighton and outsiders Tottenham jockey for position behind top two Manchester City and Arsenal. A 2-0 home defeat by the Gunners last weekend may have dented their charge and prompted hopes among the chasing pack of a late-season wobble, but head coach Howe was having none of it. Asked if the air around the training ground was a little heavier as a result of what is at stake in Saturday’s trip to relegation-threatened Leeds, he said: “The air should be lighter, not heavier. “We’re excited, that has to be our emotion. We’re looking forward to the challenges ahead, we’re not in any way, I don’t feel, daunted by it. “In sport, sometimes the more you think the more you damage yourselves, so play the game. These players have played all their lives and played because they enjoy it, so let’s strip away everything and let’s just perform well in our next game.” Newcastle head into the latest round of fixtures sitting in third place and knowing two more wins would almost certainly secure a place in European club football’s biggest competition next season – which would represent a significant upgrade on their target when they set out in August. We hope to be a nuisance for all teams. We don’t want to be nice to play against. Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe Howe admitted: “The aim was to not be in another relegation battle, try to stay clear of that and then build a lot of aspects of the team and play to be successful and sustain that success long-term. “Things have snowballed, now we sit where we do and we’ve done incredibly well.” In the process, the Magpies have found themselves thrust into the limelight with opposition managers having taken aim at both their game-management and physicality. Asked if he felt they had people rattled, Howe said: “We hope to be a nuisance for all teams. We don’t want to be nice to play against.” Howe’s players will need to bring all that to bear at Elland Road, where Leeds are engaged in a desperate fight for top-flight survival with former Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce having been parachuted in to engineer a rescue mission. He and Howe were touted for the vacant England manager’s job back in 2016 before Allardyce got the nod for what proved to be the briefest of reigns. “Without remembering, I’d probably say I felt I shouldn’t maybe have been in that frame at that stage of my career,” Howe said. “I felt I had so much to achieve and experience before being elevated to that position. “But it’s always a compliment and you always take it in the right way, that it must mean you’re doing something right in your job to be elevated to those levels.” A bullish Allardyce ventured on his appointment at Leeds that he was as good a manager as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta, but Howe says he was not disappointed to be left off the list. “I wouldn’t be arrogant enough to push my name into that list,” he said. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jurgen Klopp: Miracles happen but a top-four finish is still out of our hands Kitman Chris Marsh overcomes illness to help support Coventry’s promotion push Premier League and PFA announce new five-year partnership

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