Bukayo Saka made the most of his first start for England in three games, scoring a hat-trick against France, but the Arsenal winger is still recovering from the heartbreaking semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Bukayo Saka suffered a broken bone but remained defiant (Image: FIFA)
Bukayo Saka is proud of his “incredible achievement” at the World Cup, but that doesn’t take away the pain of Argentina’s defeat. Saka became the fourth English player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup (after Gary Lineker, Sir Geoff Hurst and Harry Kane) as England defeated France to take third place in the competition.
However, Arsenal winger Saka said he was still unable to get over the loss in the semi-finals and admitted he wished he had played more in this summer’s tournament. “On a personal level, I have worked hard to prepare for this tournament and create moments like this,” Saka said.
“And for me, this is an incredible feat. Like you said, there are only three other British people who have achieved it. So, yeah, this is a great record to have now, and I’m proud to have achieved it.”
“But I don’t think anything can lessen the pain that we felt from last night. To be honest, that incident really hurt us. But yeah, this was just about being professional and finishing strong like I said, and this group has that cohesiveness.
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“We have that mentality and it has never been a problem for us. And we got the result today so we can be proud of having outperformed the England team. This will definitely help us as we go into the next major tournament.”
“Yeah, that’s very hard to accept. But we showed and we believed and we feel like we made the country believe that we can do it too. So that belief hasn’t left us. You know, we’ll try to get back in the next tournament and get over the line.”
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Bukayo Saka ends a disappointing World Cup on a high (Image: Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Jed Spence says the World Cup was a “growth” moment in his career. England’s full-back Spence attracted attention for his bravery in this tournament, and showed an outstanding performance in the third-place match against France.
Asked if it was a coming-of-age moment, Spence said: “Yes, definitely. I always believe in myself and I’m happy to be able to perform on a bigger stage. It’s great to have our best performance since 1966. That’s what we accomplished with this team.”
“Of course this is not what we wanted, but this is the World Cup and we are proud to be part of it. It shows the group mentality, the players’ mentality. We are disappointed, but we have to put it behind us. We have to look at what is in front of us. Credit to the players today. We did it. It shows the group mentality.”
“The whole World Cup. It’s my first big tournament and it’s a blessing and it’s an honor to be with this team. It was a great night in Mexico. So many great memories were made. I always believed in my abilities. Difficult moments don’t define you. I worked hard and I can only thank God.”
Jed Spence was proud of his tournament (Image: Eston Parker/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Spence also backed Thomas Tuchel and said they will come back stronger. He also said he would like Tuchel to lead the team towards Euro 2028, adding: “Yes, he is definitely very keen. He is a great manager and we are building something special.”
“It’s not the (medal) we were hoping for, but it’s a stepping stone. It’s our best result since 1966, so it’s a step in the right direction. We hope we can take another step forward in the next tournament.”
“We have to learn from this tournament and we learned a lot. We performed well so we just carry that into the next tournament and the next game against other teams.”
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