Dan Burn said he believed it was “our time” to win the World Cup but defended Thomas Tuchel’s tactics as England‘s dream ended in semifinal heartbreak against Argentina.
Tuchel’s side were 15 minutes away from reaching a first World Cup final in 60 years after Anthony Gordon‘s opener, but they invited pressure on and paid the price, conceding two goals in seven minutes to lose 2-1.
It was a familiar story for a nation used to getting so close, but Burn thought it was going to be different this time.
“I think when you come within sort of 10-15 minutes of a World Cup final and then don’t get it done, it hurts,” he said.
“Obviously, I’m very gutted right now, but I’m so proud of what the team has done.
“We don’t even think anyone gave us a chance coming into this.
“The brotherhood that we spoke about just took us a long way, and if I’m being honest, I thought we’d do it.
“I just had that feeling that this was our time, but I think Argentina showed why they’re world champions and they’ve been there and they’ve done it.”
It was all going so well for England when Gordon opened the scoring 10 minutes after the restart, with Tuchel’s side having navigated a tricky first half where Argentina tried to antagonise their opponents.
But the game changed instantly, with Tuchel soon adopting a back five and a capitulation was inevitable as late goals from Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez sent the defending champions through to the final.
“I thought that we nailed the game plan up until we scored. I thought we did really well,” Burn added.
“We knew what Argentina were going to do, and I thought we dealt with it pretty well.
“And then we got a little bit passive after the goal. Defended probably a little bit too deep and the quality of chances that Argentina were creating, I thought it felt like it was a matter of time.
“I think we conceded too many crosses and too many chances, and I think it’s hard because in the previous games we’ve defended those so well.
“So, I don’t think that we can take massive criticism for going into that.”
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He continued: “I think when we’re in 4-4-2 defending, we were conceding a lot of chances. So something had to change, and as I said, we’ve been pretty solid when we were a back five in the previous few games.
“I think the manager may want to have done something in hindsight, but also from the players, we’ve taken responsibility to get through.
“We’ve been 10-15 minutes away from the World Cup final, we really probably should see it out.”
