I’ll use pain to gain Euros glory
STONES DRIVEN BY SETBACKS
JOHN STONES admits that some lingering personal pain is driving him to conquer Europe with England this summer.
The Three Lions will head to Euro 2024 in Germany as one of the strong favourites to win and Stones is determined that this time they achieve the ultimate goal.
Three years ago, Stones was rocked by double disappointment.
He was part of the Manchester City team which lost the Champions League final to Chelsea in 2021 and then suffered as part of the Three Lions side that were beaten on penalties by Italy in the Euro final at Wembley a few weeks later.
He said: “It was a really difficult point for me, losing a Champions League final and losing that. It was difficult to take.
“I said to myself after that, that I never wanted to have that feeling again.
“And it’s possible that I might, but my mindset is to make some history, and make one of my dreams come true.
“To get some silverware with England, and make everyone’s dream come true in that respect.”
Gareth Southgate’s men have been knocking on the door at the last three major tournaments, having reached a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final, along with the final of that last Euros on home soil.
Now Stones believes England have the talent available to finally get their hands on what would be their first trophy since 1966.
Stones said: “In terms of our maturity and belief, we have just grown massively.
“We started at a difficult point in the earlier times, where the perception, or the feeling towards the national team wasn’t great going into tournaments.
“We wanted everyone to love English football again. Wanted people to be proud of us when we go into tournaments. And we did that, I believe, in the 2018 Russia World Cup.
“And it’s grown since then. I feel now it’s time for us to go past that step and get something.
“Age comes into play and form, which I feel like everyone is getting better and better over the years. I feel we’re in a really good stage.
“We’ve had different players coming in and out who have bought into it.
“I can’t really put my finger on what that is, but there’s an environment that’s been created here that is special. We need to capitalise on that, definitely.”
Stones admits some lingering pain is driving him towards earning footballing immortality this summer.
England face Brazil tonight, having beaten the Samba stars just four times in 25 attempts.
The last time the two countries clashed was in 2017 at Wembley and that ended in a goalless draw. Stones admits England might have lacked the belief to beat the
five-time World Cup winners, but reckons things are different now. He added: “We didn’t realise or believe enough that we were better than them at that point.
“But I feel now, with the players we’ve got and the experiences that we’ve had, being in finals, winning club trophies, having tough experiences, we go into this game with the most belief that we could come away with a win.
“That’s how I feel anyway. We’re not arrogant going into this game.
“We are excited and believe we can go and win against the best.
“We spoke for many years now about getting into that elite group, or being the world’s number one team – and to do that we’ve got to beat the best teams and players.”