Gareth Southgate has spoken of his pride at following in the footsteps of Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Bobby Robson and Terry Venables in becoming the fourth England manager to steer the national side to the semi-final of a major tournament.

England will compete in the last four of the World Cup for the first since 1990 in Moscow on Wednesday with Southgate having guided the least experienced squad at the tournament to within 90 minutes of the final. He paid tribute to his players and staff and the manager – who had doubted he would ever shrug off the stigma of being relegated with Middlesbrough early in his coaching career – contemplated the opportunity that awaits.

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“It’s an incredible privilege to be the England manager but when you sit and think about the people who have got to this point before, people I hugely respect and admire ... it’s difficult to put it into perspective, really,” he said. “I worked under Terry and Don [Howe] at the European Championships, people I hold in such high esteem. It would fairly easily be my best day in coaching. But, look, we just want to keep improving as a team of coaches, staff and players. I go back to the fact it isn’t about it. It’s about the whole group.

“To be in charge of people who give as much energy, and give me as much as they have over this period of time, is very special. It’s great to see the players sat with their families out there. Without the commitment of a couple of wives who allowed their husbands to come back after giving birth … I hope they feel part of this as well.

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“It hasn’t always been like this when representing England. You only have to go back 18 months and I said to them that having some kind of success with England would be so much bigger than any success they’d enjoy with their clubs. That is maybe starting to register now.

“We’ve got to this point because the collective has been so strong. To have gone to the depths emotionally and physically in midweek [against Colombia], and controlled this game and withstood the physical test, was a sign of resilience of a young team who are maturing in front of our eyes. But I spoke to the lads today and none of us fancied going home. Now we have to be here another week. It’s up to us now which games we play in.”

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Southgate offered a nod, too, to the much-criticised Roy Hodgson for blooding so many younger players during his tenure in charge. Nine members of Southgate’s squad in Russia had been on the pitch at some stage as England subsided so ignominiously to Iceland at Euro 2016 in a defeat that seemed to create a disconnect between the supporters and the national team. That rift seems repaired.

“They didn’t have big-match experience two years ago and, under pressure, they suffered,” said Southgate. “Roy took a lot of criticism, but he was brave enough to put them in and deserves credit for that. Without that experience, we wouldn’t be here. Young players will suffer at times and have days when they can’t cope or adjust. But the experiences two years ago put a lot of those lads in better stead. They’re two years further on and have benefited from that as well. There’s a humility about them, a recognition of where they were 18 months ago and the work that was needed to get them where they are now.

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“These guys are all England fans. Some have been at tournaments in the past as supporters. If not, their families have. They’ve all worn the shirt as kids and are now proud to wear the shirts as players. As a group they’re tighter. A lot have come through the junior teams together, and they’ve been able to park their club rivalries at the door.

“We are a team who are still improving, but we know where we are. We are having success because everyone is working so hard on the field, while some of the older guys – like [Gary] Cahill, [Phil] Jones, [Danny] Welbeck, [Jack] Butland, [Danny] Rose – have been exceptional in their mentality supporting the team, training every day, even though they’ve not had as much game-time as they’d have liked. They’re as much of a reason why we are where we are.

“You can say the same for people like Tom Heaton, Adam Lallana and Jake Livermore who were on standby and trained with us before we left, and whose contribution was brilliant. And people like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been messaging me, or Joe Hart, who made a massive save for us in the qualifier in Slovenia. People who have played a massive part in getting us to where we are. None of that should be overlooked. In years to come, they’ll be stronger. But this was a huge opportunity for us, and not something we wanted to miss out on.”