Matthew Crossen says playing for England at the CP World Championships was the 'proudest' moment of his life, despite suffering a 1-0 defeat against Ukraine.
England's Cerebral Palsy side took on Ukraine on Saturday afternoon as they went head-to-head for top spot in Group A.
A 17th-minute Volodymr Antoniuk strike proved decisive and the European champions held on, despite late pressure from the Three Lions.
England v Russia
Cerebral Palsy World Championships
Quarter-final
4.30pm, Wednesday 24 June
St. George's Park
The result means England will take on World champions Russia in the quarter-final, to be played on Wednesday.
Regardless of the result and its implications, Crossen remained positive about what was evidently a significant moment in his career.
“There were tears before and after the game," he said. "I’m just proud. This has been the proudest moment of my life.”
Ukraine controlled possession for the majority of the match and arguably had more chances, penning England deep into their own territory, but Crossen was adamant that the Three Lions deserved more.
It was only Matthew Crossen's second appearance for England
"We did more than just worry them. I felt we should have won and come away with the three points. It should be us winning the group there.
"We’ve just lost 1-0 to one of the world’s best. We‘re supposed to be ranked 10th and we’ve just held them to 1-0 when we could have comfortably been two or three goals to the good.
“I’m very proud of the lads. We did more than just worry Ukraine. We all put a shift in, played well, and we have come on leaps and bounds since the Euros,” he added.
Following Iran’s unexpected withdrawal prior to the tournament, the England players have had a lot of waiting to do since their opening day 14-0 victory against Japan.
There was another sell-out crowd at St. George's Park to watch England
However, according to Crossen, that had little effect on their preparation.
“That sort of thing doesn’t worry or affect us. We’re a good squad and we’re ready for anything," explained the 25-year-old.
“We have players on the bench as well as a lot of depth in our squad, which is something that a lot of the top teams can’t say.”
It was not until the final 15 minutes that England started to push forward in search of an equaliser and take the game to their guests.
But Crossen maintains that they did not leave it too late to push on.
“We’ve been training like that all of the time," he said. "We were patient all game and suddenly we got breaks when we could have scored.
“There were penalty shouts, I had a shot that went just wide, and we had other chances. There is no doubt that we did enough to create opportunities.
“We certainly worried Ukraine. Whilst we didn’t have much of the ball, we looked very sharp when we did.”
England's quarter-final opponents Russia have been in scintillating form
Russia, ranked number one in the world, finished top of Group B with maximum points having beaten Ireland, Portugal and Australia.
En route to the last eight they scored 22 goals and kept two clean sheets in the process.
Yet Crossen, who was making just his second international appearance for Keith Webb’s side, is confident that England can overcome the difficult task that awaits them.
“It will be a similar game. If we keep the same game-plan then we’ll be alright," he said.
“I put us up there with the world’s best anyway and Russia will certainly fear us after seeing that performance.”
