Pickford wants golden glove award – and to face Belgium again

Jordan Pickford says he wants to play for England against Belgium in tomorrow’s third-place play-off in St Petersburg and hopes to be named the goalkeeper of the tournament. Now firmly established as the side’s No 1, the Everton goalkeeper has had a good tournament, making a fine save late on from Mario Mandzukic in Wednesday’s semi-final before the Croatia striker scored the winner in extra-time.

Pickford’s ability to play with his feet from the back has seen him promoted ahead of Jack Butland and his save from Mateus Uribe of Colombia in the second round is arguably the best of the World Cup.

Pickford said: “Hopefully I will get the nod against Belgium. I’d love to get the goalkeeper of the tournament. But we came this tournament.

“We can’t do that now but we want to finish third. It will be a tough test against Belgium again.

“Of course, it will be hard to get ourselves up for it. That’s where character comes in. It’s another chance to show our togetherness. We want to finish a great tournament on a high. We can’t finish the best team in the world but we can still be the third best.” He added: to win “My overriding thought right now is that we did ourselves proud. The country believes in us again.

“Beforehand, I don’t think they were expecting too much from us. Now they have seen the character there is in this squad. They can see we are capable of progressing.

“It was really moving. At 12.45am the fans are still out there chanting. That got to me. It shows how far we’ve come.” The Fifa golden glove award for the tournament’s best goalkeeper is not decided on clean sheets but by the Fifa technical study group. Pickford said his greatest moment was the save from Carlos Bacca in the penalty shootout against Colombia.

“The other memory is that I know I have played well in the tournament. But above all, this World Cup is about a group of lads embracing every moment, enjoying ourselves and doing ourselves justice,” he added.