“We’ve had to find a different way of playing as the tournament progressed,” Southgate said. “When we came in we had a lot of issues, particularly at the back, a lot of players who missed a lot of football towards the end of the season.
“We’ve been trying to find the right blend and balance for our attacking players because we’ve got super talent but a lot who like to operate in similar areas.
“We feel we’ve started to find that balance. We’ve looked dangerous, like we could score goals again, and I’m happy where the team were at going into this game.”
Southgate played, and missed the decisive penalty, when Germany beat England in the semifinals en route to victory at Wembley at Euro 96 but said he did not consider it any sort of fate for England to have the chance to win the trophy on German soil.
“I am not a believer in fairy tales. I am a believer in dreams,” he said. “We’ve had big dreams, but then you have to make those things happen and fight.
“Of course, it would be a lovely story, but we need to deliver a performance. You have to be in the latter stages of tournaments to be able to learn how to win those big games, and we’re learning that. We’ve come through a lot of big nights now.
“Tomorrow, I don’t have any fear of what might happen, because I’ve been through everything. I want the players to feel that fearlessness because if we’re not afraid to lose, it gives us a better chance of winning.”
England’s turnaround under Southgate, after their shock defeat by Iceland at Euro 2016, has seen them reach back-to-back Euro finals and a semifinal and quarterfinal at the World Cup.
It is a remarkable record of consistency that no other European team, or previous England manager, has been able to match, but Southgate knows as well as anyone that that “success” will count for little if they don’t get over the line on Sunday.
“A lot of records have been broken,” he said. “But we know we have to we have to do this one, we have to get this trophy to really feel the respect of the rest of the football world.”
Reuters