Coach Paul Simpson is bursting with pride after months of meticulous preparation for the U20 World Cup have paid dividends with England through to the final.
As the first team to seal qualification for Korea, an unbeaten group stage campaign followed by victories over Costa Rica and Mexico saw the Young Lions through to the semi-final stage for only the third time in the tournament’s history.
Not since 1966 has an England team at any level reached a World Cup final but, despite falling behind in the early exchanges to Italy in Jeonju, Simpson’s youngsters maintained their composure and their class showed through with three second-half goals.
Simpson said: “We were absolutely magnificent from the first whistle.
“I know we went a goal down early on through a slight little lapse in concentration and good play from Italy to catch us out. But after that, the way we applied ourselves and the discipline that we kept, and the goals, it was a fantastic performance worthy of winning any game at any level of football.
“One of the reasons we’ve got stronger as the tournament has gone on is the planning. We have been working for months on how we were going to approach the whole tournament.
