Lukas Nmecha spoke of both his joy and relief after firing England Under-19s into the Euro Final.
The Manchester City striker was introduced as a second-half substitute against Czech Republic with the semi-final tightly poised at 0-0.
And when a golden chance came his way in the 90th minute, Nmecha was horrified to see his close-range header fly over the bar.
He made amends three minutes later though, with a crafty back-heeled finish leaving the Czechs down and out with only seconds to go.
"I took my chance when I got it, the second one,” laughed Nmecha, after the game.
"It was just a relief, I tried to forget about it [the first chance] as quickly as I could and I could feel a chance coming.
"Everyone was encouraging me, saying we'd get another chance, which we did and I took it!
"I've never scored in the 90th minute before, so it's probably the most important goal I've scored.
"It was a tough game, they had a good game plan and it worked for a lot of the match but we knew that the longer the game went on, we would become more dominant.
"If it went on to extra time we would have won it too, but it was good to win it before then.”
Nmecha, an England regular at U16, U17 and U18 level prior to this season’s campaign with the U19s, has had to be patient in waiting for his chance in Georgia.
His only other start came in the group game against the Netherlands, when fellow striker Ben Brereton came off the bench to replace him and score the winner.
But the 18-year-old knows how important the full squad and competition for places can be in a tournament like this and is hoping his semi-final contribution will give boss Keith Downing something of a selection head-ache for Saturday's final against Portugal.
"Of course it's disappointing to not start the games, but the manager spoke to me before the game and gave me a little bit of confidence,” explained Nmecha, whose younger brother Felix has also been capped by England.
"He just said that I'd get my chance and that he believes in me.
"You've just got to think about the team as much as possible. I didn't have a good game against Holland, but that's how it goes.
"We have good players here, so if you don't perform when you have your chance, that's what happens.”
The Young Lions now turn their attention to the final, which will be held in Gori and a different venue to where the squad have played all their games so far.
We've done it! @LukasNmecha's audacious injury-time goal sends the #YoungLions into the #U19EURO final! 👏 pic.twitter.com/N7bgmUMlY7
— England (@England) July 12, 2017
And having seen the success of fellow England teams in a variety of competitions so far this summer, Nmecha is hoping the U19s can follow in their footsteps.
"The U20s won, and we want to hopefully do that as well so we're going to work hard and see what happens,” he said.
"He [Downing] just said well done to everyone, congratulated us on getting this far and if we put the work in then hopefully we can win the final as well.”
Saturday’s game kicks-off at 5pm BST and will be shown live on Eurosport.
