Last-four pain will fuel us to end our wait for glory: Saka

Bukayo Saka says the “pain” of their World Cup Semi-final defeat will fuel England as they bid to finally end the nation’s long wait for a men’s trophy.

The Arsenal winger scored a stunning hat-trick in Saturday night’s remarkable 6-4 bronze-medal match victory over France in Miami which ensured that he and his team-mates will return home with something tangible to show for their hard work in North America.

However, the 24-year-old, who missed a penalty in the shoot-out defeat by Italy in the Euro 2020 Final, will do so admitting the memories of Wednesday night’s Semi-final exit at the hands of Argentina will simply increase his determination to succeed.

Saka told reporters: “Looking back at it, when we go to the next major tournament, this will definitely be fuel for us.

“It’s very tough to take, but we did show and we believe — and I feel that we made the country believe as well — that we could do it.

“That belief hasn’t left us. We’ll be back next tournament to try to get over the line.”

The fact that England managed to regroup and get the better of Didier Deschamps’ men in a madcap game in Miami four days after their hopes of winning the World Cup were dashed by Lionel Messi and company is worthy of praise after a bruising post-mortem.

Saka added: “I don’t think anything can lessen the pain that we felt from the other night. That one really hurt us, I’ll be honest.

“But this was just about being professional and finishing strongly. This group has got that togetherness, we’ve got that mentality — that’s never been a problem for us — and we showed that today, so we can be proud of ourselves to achieve that highest finish that England has seen (since 1966).”