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LONDON. — Gareth Southgate has challenged his vibrant young England soccer side to build on a year to remember after they clinched a place in the Nations League semi-finals in dramatic style.

Just over a year ago, England’s qualification for the World Cup was greeted with yawns and a barrage of paper aeroplanes from fans disillusioned by decades of underachievement.

But Southgate’s team won back their place in the nation’s hearts over the course of a remarkable 2018 that saw them reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1990.

Although that World Cup run ended with an agonising extra-time loss to Croatia, Southgate and his players have refused to be defined by failure in the way that their more vaunted predecessors in the Three Lions shirt often were. — AFP.