England's performance at Euros can unite people: Southgate

England's presentation at the European Championship can help in joining the country, supervisor Gareth Southgate said in front of Sunday's initial game against Croatia.

England, semi-finalists at the 2018 World Cup, are considered one of the top choices to win the European masterpiece yet their development to the competition has been damaged by certain fans booing players for the counter prejudice token of "taking the knee".

There were scoffs from a little segment of onlookers at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough when players took the knee before England's amicable successes over Austria and Romania last week.

"I believe it's the ideal opportunity for the nation to join together, full stop," Southgate told the BBC on Friday. "Assuming the group can be an impetus for that, that is splendid.

"I think the England group is regularly an impetus for uniting individuals ... so obviously during the time spent doing that we need to play well, we need to win, we need to energize individuals, yet not the entirety of that falls upon us."

The Three Lions resuscitated the nation's relationship with football when they arrived at the semi-finals of Euro 1996, which was hung on home soil.

Southgate, who was important for mentor Terry Venables' group which lost to Germany in the last-four that year, said it was the ideal opportunity for England to "recall what a solid country we are".

"We've had heaps of division and once in a while we need to recollect what a solid island we are, what a solid country we are, the extraordinary characteristics that we have," he said.

"There were minutes toward the start of the pandemic that were so amazing where individuals arranged, I figure we ought to consistently be endeavoring towards that."