England boss Gareth Southgate believes his side will show an outstanding performance on a win-or-bust night in Moscow. The boss thinks his squad is technically a very good group of players of high energy so can pull through. “We have to show the freedom we’ve played with up to this point. I want the players to continue to attack the tournament as we have,” declared the England manager. “That shouldn’t change in the knockout stage. We should feel freer. “Of course, sometimes you see cagey games at this point of the competition but we will continue to play in the style we have. We think we can cause opposing teams a lot of problems and that won’t change because we are in the knockout phase. “I want the players to go out and play the way they have. My messages allow them to do that. They’re good enough to do that. They’re technically a very good group of players. We have high energy. They’re comfortable playing a certain style.” And Southgate is promising there will be no repeat of the debacle that put an end to Roy Hodgson’s reign, especially as he believes England might have been guilty of looking beyond their immediate task in Euro 2016. He explained: “We have an understanding that it is pointless looking beyond this game and that was a trap we’ve fallen into in the past. “A few of these players were in the last Championships in a fixture they thought they should win and then once behind they suddenly felt that approach wasn’t one that was correct. “Up against a really good team, we won’t fall into that trap tomorrow.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is back to London ahead of new season