Maguire on the belief and desire in the young Lions

HARRY MAGUIRE says England’s players are “hungry and fearless” as they head into Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final showdown with Sweden.

Gareth Southgate’s young side go into the clash in Samara on a high, following their historic penalty shoot-out win over Colombia.

And defender Maguire said England’s players overcame a huge psychological barrier by coming through the shoot-out... and they believe nothing can hold them back now.

“There were a lot of questions about us,” said Maguire.

“We’re a young team, we haven’t got that experience, but we’re hungry, we’re fearless and the boys have shown great character. We’ve won a knockout game and we’re into the quarterfinals. It’s not happened recently, so it’s a good chance for us.

“There might be more pressure, but we’re all ready for it.

“It’s really big. You’ve seen, over the past few years, how we’ve lost shootouts in knockout games, so this has changed that.

“We can take that confidence into the next game.”

Maguire admits Sweden will be another huge test for Southgate’s players, despite them being 24th in FIFA’s world rankings, 12 places below England.

Maguire said: “They’re really organised and are a really good side.

“They sat a bit deep against Switzerland and they might do the same against us.

“They look to play on the counter-attack and they’ve been really effective from it in this

World Cup.” Maguire (above, with partner Fern) admitted England made it hard for themselves by conceding in the 93rd minute to allow Colombia to force extratime, but said Southgate’s players will learn from the experience.

“Obviously, we made it hard work for ourselves and maybe we could have killed the game off,” he said.

“But it was tough out there.

“It was a game we felt in control of during all the game – and then there was that little bit of a lapse in concentration.

“But it’s given us great belief to go far in this tournament, although we’ll be taking it game by game.”