ENGLAND Under-21 star Alfie Mawson has revealed his side have been left gutted after crashing out of the European Championships against Germany.
The Young Lions suffered penalty shootout heartbreak after the game finished 2-2, and the Swansea defender has came to the defence of Nathan Redmond and Tammy Abraham after their missed spot-kicks.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Mawson said: “All the emotions that you can imagine. There are a lot of down heads in there, a lot of people ARE genuinely gutted, which I think shows how much this meant to us.
“It’s one of those things you have to man up and deal with. I think they were the better team and I think we did brilliantly to hang in there.
“They should have had a few more goals. But credit to us, we kept going and going. Penalty shootouts are pot luck but fair play to them and let’s see how they get on in the final.”
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England had a chance to go 2-1 up in the shootout when Jordan Pickford brilliant denied Yannick Gerhardt low down to his right, but Abraham saw his effort parried away immediately after.
Then Southampton winger Redmond missed the decisive kick as he failed to find the back of the net with Julian Pollersbeck preventing the ball from creeping into the bottom left corner.
Mawson added that the duo have been left gutted after playing a part in England’s exit, but has hailed them for their performances in the tournament, as well as in qualifying.
He added: “They’re gutted and you can understand why. Without them we probably wouldn’t even be in this tournament, if I’m being honest.
“The goals through qualifying and in the group stages have been fantastic. So they’ve really got to hold their heads high, they’ve been fantastic throughout.
“We’ll learn from this, little things. I think Tammy has another two more possible tournaments and he can take these experiences and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
England Under-21 boss told Sky Sports: "You've got to say congratulations to your opponent tonight.
"We gave our all, we did whatever we could. There was times in the game where, even though I felt they went ahead against the run of play, they came back into it and gave us a lot of problems.
"We had our backs against the walls at times but we showed real character and determination and we then went ahead and we showed what we are all about."
Speaking of the shootout, he revealed he was confident a place in the final would be secured.
He added: "I was very confident, I thought looking at the penalty takers, who were going to go out and do it.
"You'd expect them to do what they do all the time, especially when they missed I thought we had a great chance.
"That's football, although not the nicest of feelings at the moment, will push them on."
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