England composure delights Delfouneso

Striker Nathan Delfouneso paid tribute to England's composure after scoring twice in extra time to take his side into the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final at the expense of France.

'Got it together'
Brian Eastick's team fell behind eight minutes in against the nation that beat them in the 2005 final, but levelled before half-time thanks to Henri Lansbury's fine strike. They clinched a place in their second U19 decider as Delfouneso found the net twice in the first period of extra time, by which time France were reduced to ten men and ultimately ended with eight. "It was a very hard game, we got off to a slow start, but the main thing is that we got it back together," the 18-year-old told uefa.com. "We gradually got better as the game progressed and got the victory. We were told before the game that, no matter if we went 1-0 up or 1-0 down, to make sure we stuck to the game plan and continued playing the way we normally do. That was the key factor. We didn't fold, we kept our heads and carried on going and it worked in the end."

Eye-catching strike
Delfouneso's double – his second in as many games following a pair in the 7-1 win against Slovenia – made him the tournament's top scorer on four goals, although the Aston Villa FC forward remains nonchalant, saying: "That's what I'm here for". His second goal was particularly eye-catching, dribbling past three players including goalkeeper Rémi Pillot to slot in the clinching third, although as he explained: "It was just one of those things. Once I had my first touch, I saw the defender wasn't getting there and the keeper was rushing out so if I'd taken a shot it would have been blocked. I like to think I'm a decent player technically and have the ability and luckily it came off."

Steady progress
Having drawn their first two games, England have scored ten goals in winning their last two matches and Delfouneso feels that is a sign of a steady improvement. "In every game we've got better; we might not have started the best against France but we got into it and then we showed how we've got better over the tournament," he explained. "We did fitness work before we came out, and even here we've done a few sessions to get our cardio-vascular going. That's helped a lot. We got draws in the first two games, obviously we'd have like a victory but we got that [first win] at the right time. We're kicking into form now and hopefully we can take that into the final."

Final repeat
Sunday's game will be a repeat of England's Matchday 2 encounter against Ukraine, Delfouneso making a late substitute appearance in a 2-2 draw, although the forward expects a very different atmosphere when the sides renew acquaintances at the RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium. "Ukraine are a very together team, they've got some good individual players and they're good technically," he said. "It should be a very good game; the first one was hard, they hit us pretty quickly. We didn't settle as quickly as we would have liked but they are a very good team. Both teams will know a bit more about each other having played beforehand and they're expecting a big crowd so they'll be behind them. That's something we've got to deal with. Personally I love the crowd to be loud and get behind their team. It spurs me on to do more and more."