The Three Lions go into the game knowing that either a draw or a win will be enough to see them through to Sunday’s third or fourth play-off in Avignon.
England v Colombia
The Toulon Tournament
Group B
4.15pm, Friday 30 May 2014
Stade Leo Lagrange, Toulon
Live on BT Sport
And with this match being England’s third outing in five days, the importance of sharing the workload among the players is not lost on the head coach.
Southgate says he will make seven changes to his line-up, with the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond, Nathaniel Chalobah and Luke Garbutt all set to be rested after featuring heavily over the last ten days.
"I was talking to [FA Director Of Elite Development] Dan Ashworth about what we wanted to do on Friday," revealed Southgate.
"There’s a risk if you’re not playing your more experienced players that you could go out [of the tournament] and not get the extra game on Sunday.
"But I think we’re prepared to take that risk, because it’s important that the others play.
"Internally, we want to build up the players for the challenge, the game on Friday is about opportunities for players that haven’t had international football and seeing how they cope with it, whether they can play in different positions.
Watch highlights of Wednesday's game with Korea Republic
"We always want to win every time we take the field, but especially when have new players going in, you have to understand that for them, it’s a big change.
"We’ve got to manage how many minutes they play because we don’t want to pick up un-necessary injuries and we have to be careful for the clubs and look after the welfare of the players.
"The only difficulty of the tournament from that perspective is having one day between the games.
"You can play two, but a third game is risking it, especially on the back of the Wales fixture which we had beforehand to further complicate things."
England will face Portugal in Sunday’s game should they get a result against Colombia, who have picked up just one point from their other three games so far.
And the benefit that an extra game on Sunday would offer to the squad would be a priceless experience against one of the top nations in Europe, something which would come in useful should Southgate's Under-21s qualify for next summer’s Euro Finals in Czech Republic.
England's starting line-up against Korea will be changed for the Colombia match
"We’re having to play against teams that have pushed us up the pitch and Brazil and Korea are two teams that are better than anything we’ve played against in our Under-21 group," explained the former England defender.
"In the qualification campaign for the European Championships, you might get one team in your group who challenges you and then a play-off, so the chance to play better sides is really important.
"You’re relying on getting to the finals to get experience whereas here, you’re guaranteed that and for us as staff with the medical and sports science staff getting the players recovered and back is great practice for the future.
"To ask some of them to go again is risky and asking for trouble though, and if they play again on Friday, they wouldn’t be able to play on Sunday.
"But it’s good because that means that everybody gets a go and a game, because we have to get through that match to reach the play-off.
"That’s part of what this tournament is all about anyway."
