Cool Pearce lauds England character

Stuart Pearce breathed a sigh of relief after his side survived an exhilarating tie to reach the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final, finally beating Sweden 5-4 on penalties after the hosts had come from three goals down to take the match into extra time. While the England manager acknowledges his side must do better in Malmo on Monday to win the trophy for a third time, Sweden's joint-coach Jörgen Lennartsson was left to reflect on obvious disappointment but pride at what he believes has been a successful tournament for the hosts.

Stuart Pearce, England manager
At 3-0 at half-time we felt as if we hadn't played that well but to be in the lead was important. I told the players that if we didn't keep the ball better the floodgates would open and that's what happened. Credit to Sweden – you know they'll never give up, that's always the case with them as it is with an English team. The players were all on their knees at the end but it was an exciting match – although not for the managers. At one stage we look as if we're going to win it comfortably; at another it looks like we're going out of the competition. The one thing about this group of players is that they have a lot of character and that showed. There were some good things and some awful things – it was game management at its worst but the players and me have to learn from this.

We've practiced penalties for thoroughness. I was disappointed in the manner we chucked away the lead, and the way in which we played in the second half, but I have to have faith in the players. I'm very respectful of anyone who loses a shoot-out, I've done it myself; I'm respectful of the way the Swedish people have treated us, and I'm respectful of their two managers. We've come to win it and for me this is just a semi-final. Now only one team in Europe stands in our way.

Jörgen Lennartsson, Sweden joint-coach
I'm very disappointed, obviously. We believed we could get to the final and we didn't succeed. We had a nightmare start and the players lost a bit of confidence, they didn't play the attacking football they have in this tournament. England had an easy first half. We made changes at half-time and talked about the situation – should we lie down and die or see what we can do? We knew if we made it 3-1 we could go on, so we made some changes and gambled in attack. We got one goal and there was only one team on the field in the last 30 minutes. From how we played in the second half we deserved to win the match, we had lots of chances to get the winning goal and I can't remember many England chances in that period.

A penalty shoot-out is a lot about mental things and about how you feel after the game. We put out the best five shooters in these areas –technical, physical and positive thinking. We practised yesterday a little bit; I don't believe in practising too much because it's 90 per cent mental and ten per cent skill. It's about more than just practice. There are always things that you can do in another way with the benefit of hindsight but what can we do about that now? The players did very well in the second half, not many teams would have been able to turn the game over like we did. I'm proud of how they played in the second half and in extra time and I can't blame them for anything. We've had a good tournament here.