On Wednesday, local time, Gordon attended a pre-match press conference ahead of the England vs Spain fixture. In the second part of the press conference (we divided it into five sections due to length), he reflected on the recent World Cup.

For Gordon personally, this World Cup was a breakthrough, scoring important goals and starting multiple matches. If England faces strong teams again in the future, should players take the initiative to control the match? The head coach always emphasizes "control" as the key term.

Exactly. With this experience, next time we face a similar situation, we'll choose a different approach. That's why I say scars aren't necessarily a bad thing; they can lead us to victory in the next major tournament.

Not just this match. England as a team lacks the ball control ability that Spain possesses. That's not innate in us, and I'm not sure it can be acquired through training. Now that I'm playing in Spain, I can speak more objectively: the way they handle the ball is completely different from my experience playing in England.

Perhaps we'll never have that quality, but we can definitely become stronger or take a different path, leveraging our strengths: physical intensity, direct play, and counter-attacking defense. There's no perfect way to win, and future developments are very worth looking forward to.

First, congratulations on an outstanding start to the season at Barcelona. What have you learned about ball control? Tuchel said that controlling the match isn't an innate characteristic of English players. What did you realize during your time at Camp Nou?

As I just mentioned, ball control isn't an innate characteristic of English players. It wasn't until I came to Spain to play that I truly understood this deeply. English and Spanish players receive similar football education; we all control the ball, but Spanish players' decision-making on the pitch is innate.

Sometimes, watching them make choices on the field, I wonder how they even see those opportunities. Their football mentality is naturally different, and it's hard to explain why. But as I said, we can't blindly copy others. We are English and have advantages they don't possess. Perhaps we should leverage what we do well.

Many consider Rodri the outstanding player of this World Cup. How big a loss was it for Real Madrid to miss the opportunity to sign him?

Everyone in England knows this; I don't need to say much. We've admired his play for a long time, and I've faced him and always knew how strong he is. I'm extremely happy to now be his teammate. He's a football genius—calm and rarely loses the ball. When facing him before, I always felt like he was one step ahead. Having a teammate like that, his composure makes the whole team feel more comfortable.

Comparing the squads and achievements of England, Spain, and France, the gap in theory seems negligible, and England even has a manager who won the Champions League. So we shouldn't be this far from success, right?

Indeed, we're not far off. We faced the defending champion in the semi-final, and we could have won that match. In my opinion, in the first 60 minutes, we were the better team. After the momentum shifted, we lost, and that's football. There's no absolute truth in football; even dominating an opponent for 60 minutes doesn't guarantee victory.

Spain also led by a goal and then lost. This isn't just an England problem; we simply lost at that moment. I don't think there's still too large a gap. If we reach the final against Spain, I'm very confident we could win, but unfortunately we didn't go that far, so we'll never have the answer.

Website AF đã ra mắt! Xem tin tức đầy đủ, bình luận, chi tiết trận đấu và thống kê trên máy tính. Truy cập: www.allfootballapp.com