England set the standard for the future with shock win over Spain, says Tottenham defender Kieran Trippier

Goals from Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford earned Gareth Southgate's men a famous victory in Seville

Mark Mann-Bryans
Tuesday 16 October 2018 12:23 BST
Comments
Press conference with England manager Gareth Southgate following their 3-2 Nations League win over Spain in Seville

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Kieran Trippier believes England's win against Spain on Monday night was a statement and should set the standard moving forward.

Gareth Southgate's side stunned Spain in a 3-2 Nations League victory that will live long in the memory, with Raheem Sterling ending his 1,102-day wait for an international goal in style as he opened the scoring in Seville before netting again once Marcus Rashford had doubled the advantage.

The hosts rallied after the break as substitute Paco Alcacer headed home before Sergio Ramos grabbed another deep into stoppage time.

England's first-half display was full of energy, pace and attacking prowess and, while things changed after the interval, the Three Lions showed their guile to prevent a comeback from Spain.

Trippier came into the side having been a substitute for the goalless draw with Croatia in Rijeka on Friday and the Tottenham full-back believes the manner of England's win now sets the benchmark.

"We want to beat the big teams," he said. "In the past few games we have had draws and not scored but I think last night we showed we can beat the top teams and defend well against the top teams.

"It was a statement last night and hopefully in the future we can put performances in like this as well. We want to win every game and play like that in every game. We know how well we can play as a team and last night in the first half we showed that.

Trippier impressed as England stunned Spain in Seville
Trippier impressed as England stunned Spain in Seville (Getty Images)

"It is something to build on, we have a lot of confidence going into the next games. We just have to keep working on our formation in training and hopefully on match days we can put out the performances."

Trippier added that the performance was equal to anything he achieved with England at the World Cup, where Southgate's men reached the semi-final before losing to Croatia.

"I thought, all round it was a perfect performance," he said. "It is certainly up there for me personally in my career and I know for all the other lads. Spain haven't lost in over 10 years in a competitive game [at home] so it just shows what we can do, the attacking threat we've got.

"We learned a lot as a group and individuals at the World Cup. The manager has changed the formation and I think it releases the forwards more to press."

The sense that Southgate is continuing to develop something special is only heightened by the age of the players he is working with. At 28, Trippier was the elder statesman of the side in Spain, which had an average age of just over 23.

"I read something before - it makes me feel so old," Trippier joked. "I am three years older than someone else who's 25. I can't believe it. We have got a young team but there is so much quality.

"It's good to come to places like this for the young lads to get the experience and obviously for me as well. You want to play against the best and we want to be the number one team. It was a great night and we move forward now."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in