Conor Coady
Three months on from the final of the European Championship, Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Conor Coady says he looks back on the tournament with “pride”. The centre-back didn’t manage to get on the pitch in the summer, watching from the sidelines as England reached the Wembley decider where they were defeated on penalties by Italy. The Wolves captain has featured twice for the Three Lions since Euro 2020 ended, starring in both World Cup qualifying wins over Andorra, and has remarkably kept a clean sheet in all seven of his England caps. Ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Hungary, Coady says that he is proud of the team’s effort and the joy they brought to the country over that one month.
Conor Coady said: “Pride [is the overriding emotion looking back]. It would be pride now that it has finished and we have had a couple of months to look back at what we did and say it was an incredible achievement. We believed so much that we could go and win it, especially after the Denmark game and then before the Italy game with the excitement and the feeling of confidence which was running through us while we were training – honest to God, it was incredible. I look back on it now with pride, especially because of what the country has been through over the last couple of years and what we were able to do as a team in terms of bringing a smile to people’s faces. That was the biggest winner about the whole thing. We obviously wanted to go and win it and I think it will be a big thing which will live on in the players’ minds for the rest of their lives but I think a big winner from it was the smile on people’s faces and the pride.”
Unsurprisingly, the defender looks back fondly on the atmosphere created by the supporters during what was, for all intents and purposes, a home tournament as England played all but one of their games at Wembley.
Conor Coady said: “That semi-final man. That semi-final. The Germany game was amazing and it will live with us forever. But the feeling after the Denmark game when we were all on the pitch, with our arms around each other singing Sweet Caroline, honestly mate, that will stay with me forever – that picture in my head of us all in front of our families. Obviously we hadn’t seen our families for five or six weeks and we could only see them from a distance when they were sat in the stands at games so that was the only time we saw them. So to win that semi-final and take our country to a first final since 1966, it is giving me goosebumps now. To take our country through to the first final since ’66 and that feeling of being on the pitch in front of our families, in front of our fans, in front of our nation, it was something which will live with me forever honestly. It was amazing.”
