Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings has revealed the trouble he had controlling his emotions before his tournament debut with England. Mings has been the beneficiary of a pre-tournament injury to Harry Maguire with Gareth Southgate starting the centre-back in each of England’s opening two Euro 2020 fixtures.
Tyrone Mings said: “It was crazy. I’ve had some good times at Wembley, with the play-off final, and it’s a place my family now have fond memories of and hopefully, we’ll have some more throughout this tournament. In the week leading up to the game it was so hard to control my emotions because I had family sending me videos of good luck messages, going over old pictures of my sisters standing on the side of the pitch watching me when I was a kid, and then obviously the occasion for them was just amazing. Trying to control my emotions going into the game was probably the hardest bit. Going to the game and into the stadium is what we do every week, so that’s the easy part.”
The 28-year-old has played his part in England’s clean sheets versus Croatia and Scotland at Wembley and will be hoping to keep his place for Tuesday’s Group D decider against the Czech Republic. A victory would guarantee England top spot, but the Three Lions could finish third and still qualify for the last-16.
Tyrone Mings added: “There is absolutely no panic from within the group. We spoke this morning about how nothing’s changed. There’s no direct route, or right or wrong way to success, and I think Portugal drew all three of their group games in the Euros that they won. There’s no panic. We’re enjoying it, we’re fully focused on the game on Tuesday. Of course we’d love to win every game, but that’s forgetting that we’re always coming up against opposition who also want to win the game so it’s not that straightforward.”
