England U17s boss Steve Cooper says his side are determined to enjoy their final Euro group game with Sweden on Thursday.
The Young Lions go into the match knowing they need to win their game and that the Netherlands beat France in group B’s other fixture, while also usurping France’s superior goal difference which stands at five better than England’s.
But even though the odds are stacked against his team, Cooper believes the players can continue learning in the way they approach the game.
“There’s no massive drama, we’re not going to change our plan out here,” said the head coach.
“We’re going to look forward to another game against Sweden.
“With qualification depending on the other game, that’s what’s good about this tournament, it’s all part of the experience for the lads.
“This event is important to them, it’s their first UEFA experience whatever happens at the next game, it’s still another game for your country at a European Championship Finals.
“That’s a massive motivation in itself.”
After being held to a draw by France in the opening game, Monday’s 5-2 defeat against the Dutch has made the prospect of qualification for the quarter finals that bit tougher.
But Cooper admits he saw plenty of positives from that game, despite the heavy scoreline.
“There’s always two things from any game, the result and the performance,” he added.
“Fair play to Holland, they took their chances and were clinical. The irony is that there were large spells of the performance where I really liked us.
“I thought we played some good football and some of the players looked really good at the level, which is what we’re looking for on the bigger stage.
“Looking forward, there’s definitely some positives to take out of the game, but the negatives for me were our game management and we cannot blame anybody else but ourselves for that.
“I don’t think it was a 5-2 game, but if you make those mistakes then you will get punished.”
For England forward Morgan Rogers, it's a case of getting the job done against the Swedes before even thinking about what is happening in the other game.
“We have to go into the Sweden game thinking we can qualify and go through," said the West Bromwich Albion man.
"We can only manage what we can do. We’ve done it before [in the Elite Round qualifiers] and we know we can do it again. When time gets tough we’ve shown that we can stick together and we’ve just got to try and do that on Thursday and hope everything falls our way.”
“That’s why we play international football, to play the big teams in the big games, especially with a lot of pressure on the games – to make us better footballers. Some games haven’t haven’t gone our way but at least we’ll learn from it, it’s a massive learning curve for us.
“It’s a dream come true to play for England in a high profile tournament like the Euros and it’s just a massive achievement and a massive honour. It’s something I’ve looked to do since I was a young boy.”
England's game with Sweden takes place at 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon at Whitehall in Dublin.
