England enjoyed an emphatic win over Northern Ireland to secure their best ever finish in a European Championship and a place in the fifth-sixth place play-off.
Harry Baker’s stylish hat-trick was supported by a brace from Dale Smith and goals for George Fletcher, Jordan Twiss and Lewis Tribe to complete an 8-0 win in Zeist, Netherlands.
“We are delighted to have played so well and scored a number of really well taken goals,” said Jeff Davis, England’s national elite manager for para football.
“We were hit hard with the new classification rules and lost three players who were made ineligible despite the fact they have CP, we then lost two players ten days before we arrived to injury and family problems.
“We had to go deep into our talent pool and U21 squad and Jordan Twiss has been a real plus during the games.
“In fact, over 50 per cent of the squad has come through our talent programme and although we did not get out of the group, we really pushed Russia and Ukraine to the limit and the semi-final scores of 5-0 (v Holland) and 3-0 (v Republic of Ireland) showed what a difficult group the Three Lions were drawn in.
“Couple this with the fact we had six players who did not compete in this event from the fourth place team from the World Championship in September 2017, you can see the side has made great strides despite facing many challenges”.
England will play Germany in their play-off on Sunday, the first time the two have ever met in CP football.
