Jack Butland believes England's future is bright

The Three Lions face Korea Republic on Wednesday evening in their third match of the competition, knowing that a victory will give them a good chance of reaching Sunday’s final games.

Defeat to Brazil on Monday means it will be difficult for Gareth Southgate’s side to top their group, but with second place up for grabs and a third-fourth place decider scheduled for Sunday, Butland is hoping to help extend the squad’s stay in southern France.

"That’s our main target now," revealed the Stoke City goalkeeper. 

"We’ve got two games coming up to secure our place in the third or fourth place play-off, probably against either France or Portugal. 

"It would be more good experience for us to get there and certainly more of the type of games we’re going to need to get experience for next summer and beyond.

Butland has been a regular for England Under-21s this season

"Our target for the Under-21s is to get to the Euros next summer and win them, so playing against these sides here is massively important for our development. The players want to be accustomed to playing against the top sides.

"It would be massive to come in the top four of this tournament and we want to be in the top four no matter which tournament we play in. 

"We want to be in the top two, we want to be the top team - those are the stages of tournaments we want to be regularly getting to in the future."

Butland already has experience of playing against teams from the Korean peninsula, after featuring against DPR [North] Korea in the 2011 U20 World Cup and then against [South] Korea Republic as part of Team GB in the London 2012 Olympics.

And after losing that game after a penalty shoot-out, he knows what sort of a challenge the Three Lions are likely to face from the Koreans in Aubagne on Wednesday night.

"They are everything you don’t want in an opposition team," admits the 21-year-old.

"Their work rate is extremely high but they are improving technically as a nation too. Physically they won’t be as strong, as powerful and as quick as us. 

"But they do have the confidence and they are trying to play football, which is good to see.

"It will be another tough test, one we can’t take lightly. They pushed Brazil hard and will be another tough side to beat. But if we prepare ourselves in the right way, we’ll get through the game.

Butland tasted defeat against South Korea at the London 2012 Olympics

"It will be a different bunch of players to the ones we faced at the Olympics, but it will be the same make-up, the same mentality and they are not to be underestimated. 

"They do have quality and we have seen that, but we know we have more than enough ability in the squad to deal with that defensively and we have more than enough attacking threat to put goals past them."

Butland is no stranger to tournament football, having spent the last five summers in some kind of different international competition with a variety of England squads.

He was part of the U17 squad who won the Euros in 2010, went to the U20 World Cup in Colombia in 2011, then onto Euro 2012 with the seniors and the Olympics before featuring for England Under-21s in their Euro Finals in Israel last summer.

And he says he’s seen enough during that time to suggest that there is plenty of English talent coming through to challenge at senior level in the future.

"I think we are improving," he said. 

"If you look at the record of where England sides have been finishing throughout the age groups; we’ve been getting to finals, semi-finals, we’ve won the European U17s twice in four years and we are improving.

"We’re playing against better sides, but the players coming through are getting better.

"The likes of [John] Stonesy and Flanagan are on stand-by, Luke Shaw is in the seniors and then there are players like Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain] who is still eligible for this age group.

"We have got an incredible pool of players and only by coming to tournaments like this will you get the experience.

"The lads who are going to the World Cup will massively benefit from that and I will get five weeks off this summer to really rest up and hit the ground running.

"But the previous five years have been incredible for me. Now I want to go forward and push on again."