Kolkata: England competed against Spain in a highly dramatic final which saw them emerge victorious to clinch the coveted U-17 World Cup trophy for the very first time. Despite being 2-0 down, they had it in them to continue with the fight and eventually netted five wonderful goals of which two came from 17-year-old Philip Foden.
Quite justifiably, he deserves a lot of credit for his superlative performance in the big match and Spanish coach Santiago Denia didn’t stop from praising him.
“England utilised the left wing with Foden cutting in from the right. We had prepared the game not only for the wings but also for the central midfielders. We knew they have good players not only on the wings but overall. Foden was cutting inside and created problems,” he said.
Praising the young star, he added, “He is a great player and has a great future ahead. We tried to defend against him as a team. He played great.”
A disappointed Denia however was proud of his boys for their brilliant performances so far. Spain, as a matter of fact could have scored more had they not missed their chances.
Nonetheless, he expressed pride for his team as he said,
“I am heartbroken. I am very proud of the players, proud of the work in the past 2 years. The efforts go beyond the performance of the final. We won the Euros and are the runner-up in the World Cup. I’m very proud of the team.”
Acknowledging that England was the better side in the match he continued, “Our forwards played very well for first 40 minutes scoring two goals. England played well overall. They made adjustments perfectly. The message at half-time was to stay forward. They are a very good side and played better than us. Congratulations to them,” he added.
On the other hand, English coach Steve Cooper, justifiably was a happy man at the end of it all. Seeing his team trail 0-2 and then turn it all around with five goals is something which doesn’t happen everyday and Cooper didn’t back down from praising his lads for sticking to the task and getting the job done.
“I’m so proud of the performance. Two-nil down, we played our way, we didn’t stop, we stuck to our game plan, we stuck to our style. We’re building for the future and that’s the way to do it,” he said.
Philip Foden, the man of the moment whose goals in the 69th and 88th minutes propelled England to a famous win said, “We knew we were capable of coming back. We had to stay calm and play our own football. We didn’t get off to the best of starts. We got in at half-time and got the team together and we came out firing. And we saw it out in the second half.”
Even Pep Guardiola, who manages Foden at Manchester City couldn’t stop but shower praise on the wonderkid, who he feels would benefit the English national team as well as Manchester City in the coming days.
“After [pre-season] he trained with us every single day. Of course, he is just 17. He is a young player,” he said.
“He is a player in our squad. Every day he is in the locker room with our guys. That is the best way to learn, from the experienced guys, about what it means to be at a high level. It is so important for Manchester City, for him, for everybody, that he played at a high, high level in that competition,” he added further.