Saka makes painful England admission and Euro 2028 vow after World Cup star turn

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Bukayo Saka is proud of his “incredible achievement” at the

World Cup

- but it still cannot remove the pain of the

Argentina

defeat.

Saka

became only the fourth English player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup - after

Gary Lineker

,

Sir Geoff Hurst

and

Harry Kane

- as England smashed

France

to

finish third in the tournament

.

But

Arsenal

winger Saka says he still cannot get over

losing in the semi-finals

as he also admitted he wished he had played more at the tournament this summer. Saka said: “On a personal level as well, I've worked so hard to try and get myself ready for this tournament and be available to produce moments like that.

“And for me, it's an incredible achievement. Like you said, there's only three other Englishmen that have done it. So yeah, it's a nice record to have now and yeah, I'm proud of myself to achieve that.

“But I don't think anything can lessen the pain that we felt from the other night. That one really hurt us, I'll be honest. But yeah, this was just about being professional and like I said, finishing strong and this group's got that togetherness.

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“We have that mentality, that's never been a problem for us, and we showed up today, so we can be proud of ourselves to achieve that highest finish that England team. When we go into the next major tournament, this will definitely be fuel for us.

“Yeah, it's very tough to take. But we did show and we believed and I feel that we made the country believe as well that we could do it. So that belief hasn't left us. You know, we'll be back next tournament to try and get over the line.”

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Djed Spence, meanwhile, says the World Cup has been a “coming of age” moment for his career. England full-back Spence has been a revelation at the tournament with some brave battling performances and he was outstanding in the third-place play-off with France.

When asked if it was a coming of age moment, Spence said: “Yeah, definitely. I always believe in myself and I’m happy I get to showcase on a bigger stage. It's great to be the best since 1966. It's something that we achieved in this team.

“Obviously it's not what we wanted, but it's the World Cup, and I'm proud to be part of it. It shows the mentality of the group, the mentality of the players. We're disappointed, but we've got to put it behind us. We’ve got to look at what's in front of us. Credit to the boys today, we did that. It shows the mentality of the group.

“The whole World Cup. It’s my first major tournament, it’s a blessing, it’s an honour to do it with this team.

Mexico

was a great night. A lot of great memories were created. I always believed in my ability. The difficult moments don’t define you. I worked hard. I can only thank God.”

Spence also gave his backing to

Thomas Tuchel

- and says they will come back stronger. He also said he wants boss Tuchel to lead them into

Euro 2028

. He added: “Yeah, definitely very keen. He’s a great manager and we’re building something special.

“It’s not (the medal) we wanted but it’s stepping stones. It's the best we've finished since 1966, so it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully, the next tournament we can one step further.

“We've got to learn from this tournament and we've learned a lot. We've done well, and we've just got to take it to the next tournament, and the next games that we're going to play against the other teams.”

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