‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night’ – Burn on England reaching World Cup quarter-finals

England defender Dan Burn says the Three Lions’ 3-2 victory over Mexico to reach the World Cup quarter-finals will be a night he never forgets.

Two goals from Jude Bellingham and a Harry Kane penalty were enough to see Thomas Tuchel’s side progress to the final eight, but they were made to work for it by co-hosts Mexico, with Javier Aguirre’s side scoring twice and having a man advantage after Jarell Quansah’s second half sending off.

Burn, who came on late in the second half to help defend England’s goal advantage, is adamant he will not be forgetting this victory anytime soon.

“Amazing,” Burn said. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night. I think the stadium, the occasion, playing against Mexico there, listening to the Mexican national anthem of 100,000 people, I thought was surreal. 

“A crazy game, so just really, really proud of the lads. We knew it was going to be a challenge, we saw a little bit of the underdog, but we rose to the challenge and we’re delighted to get through.”

The 34-year-old also credited the work of the England attackers, with Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon all pivotal in the win after coming through a difficult first 25 minutes of the match.

“I think importantly we knew we were going to have to get through that first quarter of football, and so to not concede Mexico were going to come for it and we thought we’d get the chances after that.

“We did, we got two counter-attacks. As I’ve said before, we’re quite a very good counter-attacking team. When you’ve got players of the quality of Gordie and Jude and H (Kane) up front, they can always cause problems.

“So, I’m delighted for Jude, I think he does a lot of work, but sometimes he goes unnoticed. But I’m delighted we got two goals.”