Dominic Calvert-Lewin paid tribute to England U20s’ strong team performance as they reached the World Cup final.
The Young Lions came from behind to beat Italy in their semi-final on Thursday, thanks to a fluent second-half display and goals from Dominic Solanke (2) and Ademola Lookman.
And the Everton striker and his squad-mates now head to Suwon for Sunday’s showpiece game against Venezuela brimming with confidence after a convincing victory.
“It’s an unbelievable performance from the boys, we’re into the World Cup final and we’re all over the moon,” said Calvert-Lewin, who led the line alongside goalscorer Solanke and his Goodison Park team-mate Lookman.
“It’s what we’ve come here to do, get to the World Cup final and hopefully we can go on to win it now, but I’m just buzzing at the moment.
“We’ve worked all year for this, coming away on international duty, it’s what we’ve planned to do all season.
“Now we’re right where we want to be, so we’re just looking forward to the final now.”
Paul Simpson’s side got off to a rocky start though, with Italy taking the lead with less than two minutes on the clock through Riccardo Orsolini.
And the Young Lions found it tough to break down a stubborn Azzurri side after that, before Simpson’s words of encouragement at half time restored their faith in how they were playing.
“The gaffer just told us to keep doing what we were doing, try to grind them down and that’s exactly what we did,” revealed the former Sheffield United striker.
“We got sucker-punched early on in the first couple of minutes and it’s always going to be tough against an Italian team when you’re 1-0 down, but we stuck at it in the first half, ground them down and got the first goal.
“We just came into our own then, the players brought out the big performances and it was a big team performance to get the result.
“Ade was brilliant today and Dom was excellent as well, but it was the team performance that won us the game and it was the best team performance that we’ve put together in the tournament so far.”
The victory means England are in a World Cup final for the first time since the Three Lions won the senior competition on home soil in 1966.
With Venezuela beating South American rivals Uruguay after extra time and penalties in the other semi-final, Calvert-Lewin and his squad mates are already acutely aware of Sunday’s opposition.
But having already beaten the likes of Argentina, South Korea, Costa Rica and Mexico so far, he knows there is plenty of ability within the group to bring the World Cup home.
“We’ve seen that Venezuela are a good team,” he revealed.
“They’ve been on the other side of the draw and are going along quite nicely.
“It will definitely be a tough game but if we can bring our best performance to the party, we will be just fine.”
