Jordan Pickford has warned Argentina that they should be fearful of England's attacking firepower and unbreakable mentality ahead of the World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday. The England goalkeeper acknowledged Lionel Messi as one of the greatest players of all time but insisted that the Three Lions have the talent and resilience to hurt the reigning champions.
Pickford: We have the ability and togetherness
Pickford said: "I'll talk about Messi because he's one of the goats of the game but you can't look past the ability and the talent we've got in the squad going forward, defensively, togetherness. We've got it all there and that's what we need to put on show on Wednesday."
The 32-year-old, now England's all-time record World Cup appearance holder, highlighted Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane as key threats. Bellingham has been in electric form, while Kane provides a proven goal-scoring edge. Messi, aged 39, is the joint leading goalscorer at this World Cup with eight goals alongside France captain Kylian Mbappe.
England's resilience and room for improvement
Pickford emphasized that England are not yet the finished article despite reaching the semi-finals. He said: "Like the manager said, the mentality we have in abundance and the togetherness we have but we're not the finished article. We always want to improve. We're in the semi-final. We always want to keep improving as a team."
He added: "The cream rises to the top and we'll always keep working harder to keep improving. You don't want to just think the job's done against Norway and we've got to improve for the next game and the next game after that."
Taking the semi-final clash seriously
Pickford acknowledged that these showpiece games are rare, despite England having reached the semi-finals in Russia eight years ago. He said: "It's a great honour. We're reaching targets that we want to reach. We're reaching levels that we want to reach and we want to keep pushing. We know the end goal, but we always take it step by step."
He concluded: "The first chapter was to get through the group stage. The manager mentioned about going through the grind of Mexico and Congo. We know every game is a challenge, now our next challenge is Argentina and we'll be set up and ready for them. It feels special, but also it's a job."
