AHEAD of England’s crunch quarter-final match against Sweden today, reporter Vicky Thompson took to the streets of York to see what people think about our performance, its impact and the squad's impressively sartorial manager, Gareth Southgate.

Sam Davis, 23, from Scarborough, a physician associate student, said he would probably be watching the match at the pub: “Gareth Southgate is doing well. He’s obviously a good manager, but he needs to take Stirling off and put Rashford on. I think the team will have learned from their mistakes and we’ll beat Sweden 3-1. The country will probably run out of beer if we win the whole thing.”

David Wilson, 70, from Acaster Malbis, is retired. He said he would be watching the match at home: “I think Gareth Southgate has really brought the team together more than a lot of the other managers have done. He’s brilliant. This is something the whole country is rallying around. I think the result will be 2-1 to England. I hope there’ll be no penalties.”

Jacqueline Gilbey, 51, from Rufforth, works in HR at York hospital. She will be watching the match with her family at The Chequers in Bilton-in-Ainsty: “I think Gareth Southgate is doing a great job. He’s inspiring the team and he’s very stylish. If we don’t take the next step at least he’s picked a team we can build on for the future. They should give us hope. I think it’ll be 2-1 to us in 90 minutes, although my son told me that Sweden would win 2-1. I couldn’t go through penalties again.”

Dave Moorhouse, 37, from Wigginton, is a web designer and is involved in grass roots football. He said he would be at a wedding, so he won’t be able to watch the match live: “I think Gareth Southgate is awesome. I’m the co-chair of Wigginton under-nines Grasshoppers and he’s the perfect ambassador for the kids. This is huge for the country. We often compare ourselves to Germany and it shows we’re doing something right to have progressed further than them. With a bit of confidence I think it’ll be 1-0 to us, although with their track record, Sweden is a bit tricky.”

Jo Wraith, 40, from Fulford, is a management consultant. She said she would probably watch the match at Spark: York with her family - especially her son, who is obsessed with football: “I think Gareth Southgate has shown he’s got compassion and he’s driving the team to success. It’s morale-boosting and makes the nation feel good. I like his outfits too - he makes an effort. I think it’ll be close, but not a thrashing, maybe 2-1 to us in 90 minutes.”