England vs Croatia: Gareth Southgate not feeling the pressure ahead of huge clash

“I don’t know if I’ve told you this one,” he says to a group of a dozen journalists congregated just a pair of double doors away from the tunnel where the England players will anxiously mingle just before 7pm tonight to take on Croatia for a place in the World Cup final.

He was met with a collective shrug of shoulders.

“I’ll tell you a story about me and superstitions,” he began. “When I was managing at Middlesbrough we had a game at Reading and I was under a bit of pressure.

“When I went to get changed at the hotel, I’d forgotten my socks so I went to the kit man and I borrowed a pair of black goalkeeper’s socks.

“Anyway, we won and the staff made this big thing about my ‘lucky socks’. Next game, I went to get changed and I thought, ‘Hmm, shall I wear those socks?’

“We still needed the win but I thought, ‘No, it’s ridiculous.’ We lost the game.

“On the Tuesday we were playing again, so I thought, ‘Well, I’d better put the socks on’. So I did and we won 2-0. Then I went upstairs and got sacked!

“So really, from that moment, superstitions have rather gone out the window.”

By contrast, for 20 years, Southgate revealed yesterday, he would be straight out of the door – every time he heard the strains of Football’s Coming Home.

“I would just walk out of the room,” he said. “It is an anthem and has followed the team for a long time but involved some difficult moments as well. I don’t choose to stick it on, it’s not on the playlist, but I can listen to it now.”

With all the self-effacing banter of that penalty miss since he took over as England manager, we have all underestimated how much that penalty shoot-out failure still burns deep inside Southgate.

That is why he is not just interested in being at this semi-final stage again. This is a chance to expunge a few personal demons as well as those haunting English football as a whole.

“We’ve made several pieces of history this summer,” said Southgate. “Biggest win in the tournament, first knockout win for 10 years, first quarter-final win for longer.

“We keep looking to break the barriers down. It has been an enjoyable journey and we want to keep it going.”

Fine rhetoric but Southgate will keep the pre-match call-to-arms he delivers tonight deliberately simple.

“Bloody hell, we played Nuneaton Borough in the cup once and thought their centre forward was Eusebio because we’d built him up that much in the pre-match briefing,” he said. “You can overdo the information for players.”

More laughs among the group. Southgate’s disarming ability to take the pressure away from such an important match in the future, let alone the history of English football, has to translate itself to his dressing room.

England’s success has undoubtedly been built this summer on the new freedom the players have enjoyed and after their joint press conference it was touching to see Henderson and Southgate stood close together locked in conversation about 15 yards across the bright white line onto the impossibly green pitch which holds their fate.

They seemed to be enjoying their quiet moment together, in the eye of a storm of nerves swirling around the Luzhniki stadium yesterday.

Suddenly, amid the bustle of last-minute preparations for the game, a klaxon sounds and an evacuation message is played across the public address system. Workmen shuffle towards the exits uncertainly as the lifts are locked down.

Then all of a sudden, the noise stops and everybody carries on about their business again as if nothing had happened. Panic over.

Yet still with Southgate there are no signs that any sort of panic has even begun. His charming demeanour only tenses when it is suggested that a win here could completely change Southgate’s life.

“Let me tell you, whether we win or lose, my life will not change,” he said. “I will go home, take the dogs for a run, disappear to Yorkshire.

“Yes, I will get more attention and it won’t be easy to go out for meals if I am in certain places, but it won’t change my view on the world or the things I attempt to do.”

Certainly for now, the nation is more than happy to leave him alone so he can attempt, what up until about a week ago, seemed like the impossible.