Welbeck wants more from England

Brian Eastick's England were in rampant mood in their final UEFA European Under-19 Championship Group A game against Slovenia, reaching the last four with a 7-1 victory in Donetsk; a finals record. That represented a considerable step forward from draws with Switzerland and Ukraine in their first two games, but striker Danny Welbeck - who scored twice against Slovenia - believes more is still required if England are to progress.

'Edgy start'
"It's been a bit of an edgy start but in the last game we came on and pushed for the semi-finals, and we're all happy to have done that," the forward told uefa.com. "It's pre-season for us; we've only been in training for two or three weeks so it was always going to happen, but we're coming along well now. This is the top eight teams in Europe so every game was always going to be hard. It's tough mentally and physically but we've improved as each game has gone on and hopefully we can improve in the next as well and go one step further."

'You never settle'
Welbeck, however, admitted that he could find fault with even a six-goal margin of victory, adding: "You never settle for how you've played; you always want to play better. All strikers want to score goals, and Slovenia was a great game for us all to get a run-out and score a couple of goals. We'll be looking to get as many as possible in the next game as well. I've got two goals now and that's not bad, although I wish I'd scored more in the previous games. Maybe I've not had full one-on-one chances, but there's been a couple of half-chances where I could have grabbed a goal had I been a bit more alert. That'll come with more games under my belt."

Second chance
The Manchester United FC starlet had to withdraw from England's squad for last month's U21 championship with what he describes as "a minor knee injury" and is yet to complete 90 minutes in Ukraine, although he explained: "I'm feeling fine. The pitches are quite hard out here so it's a precaution at the moment. As the games have gone on my fitness has built up and I feel a lot sharper in and around the box. It was very disappointing to miss the U21s but I'm glad I got the second chance coming here. It definitely made me more eager to be here; to miss the U21s was a big blow but to come with the U19s was a step up."

France reunion
Next up are Group B winners France, with Welbeck one of seven England players who were in the squad that defeated the same opponents at the same stage of the U17 championship two years ago, a game he remembers well. "We've seen little snips of France; they'll be a good team, fast, strong. We played them in the U17s and won 1-0. Henri Lansbury came off with a bad injury and they pegged us back for the last five or ten minutes, but I remember what going through was like. That's pushing us on to go further again. That experience is a massive factor when it comes to tournaments like these." Asked what he will take back to United from these finals, Welbeck replied: "Hopefully a medal, and hopefully it'll be gold."