Dan Burn has insisted he will stay "ice cool" during England's bid to win the World Cup for the first time in 60 years. The Newcastle United defender spoke exclusively to Chronicle Live immediately after helping England into a World Cup semi-final with a 2-1 win over Norway.
Burn's Focus on the Task at Hand
If the former Blyth Town youth star were to accomplish such a feat, he would join the likes of Jack and Bobby Charlton as Northumbrians to pick up football's greatest honour. As ever, the consummate professional, Burn, despite the intense Florida heat endured during the quarter-final victory, still stopped to talk to his local paper.
However, in a packed interview zone, Burn's willingness to offer words resulted in a mass media scrum as journalists who'd travelled from Argentina, India, Mexico and Nigeria all wanted to quiz the Newcastle stalwart. When it was put to Chronicle Live that his progress was being roared on by the masses back on Tyneside, the 6ft 7in defender smiled and insisted he was trying to stay focused on the task in hand.
Burn told Chronicle Live: "To be honest, I am trying not to think about it! I am keeping off it as much as possible. Everyone back home wants us to do well, but I am trying to stay as present as possible."
England's Winning Mentality
And that's the exact reason why 34-year-old Burn remains part of Thomas Tuchel's plans with the Three Lions, as he will get his head down and focus on whatever task is thrown his way. Burn, who replaced England hero Jude Bellingham late in extra time, added: "We are winning games and not playing particularly well. I wouldn't say we were lucky against Norway. They're a very good team and we've shown that against Brazil. It was probably not our best performance again, but I think the good thing is that we're winning games when we're not playing brilliantly. It gives us confidence that when we can perform at our best, we can be a real threat."
So England now square up to Argentina for a rerun of 1986 and 2002 at the World Cup finals, but Burn just wants to see improvement. England boss Tuchel admitted he wasn't happy with the performance against Norway, and the Newcastle star admitted the Three Lions will have to get better.
He said: "I think we will be disappointed with the goal but I'm just happy that we've shown character to get through the game. I think that's what I mean. I don't think we've played at the top level we can yet, but I think we've shown that we can win lots of different ways. Lads coming into the team. I think you saw people were dead on their legs at the end there. But I'm delighted to go through. If we're going to want to win this thing, we're going to have to perform to the best of our ability."
Praise for Jude Bellingham
After Bellingham hauled England from what would have been an arguably unacceptable defeat in the quarter-finals, Burn spoke of England's saviour in positive manner. He said: "He is amazing. I've said it before, Jude does a lot of work that goes unnoticed. He creates goals out of nothing, so I'm very happy to have him in our team."
