Gareth Southgate relieved as Jesse Lingard digs out win for lucky Young Lions

England 1 Sweden 0:

For a long time, it looked like the Young Lions would fall short in Olomouc, having struggled to respond to defeat in their Group B opener against Portugal.

However, just as Southgate’s men seemed to be running out ideas, their hopes of progression got a timely shot in the arm as Jesse Lingard fired home an 85th-minute volley to secure a somewhat fortuitous 1-0 win.

It was the England Under-21s’ first finals victory in six years and boosted their chances of securing a top-two finish ahead of Wednesday’s group finale against Italy.

“After the game the other night, we had to stop the bleeding a little bit,” head coach Southgate said.

“We’d had hammer blows with the two injuries to outstanding players then the manner of the goal we conceded and the defeat, so we had to do a lot of work making sure all of the noise around us didn’t affect us.

“But now I think the momentum starts to swing with us a little bit now and that’s very important in football.” Southgate was impressed by his players’ character and resilience against a tough, organised Swedish side, buoyed by their surprise victory against the Italians.

The head coach was quick to praise Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek for his performance after coming off the bench, so too fellow substitute Lingard.

This has been a difficult season for 22-year-old Lingard, having sustained a serious knee injury in Manchester United’s season opener against Swansea.

It took Lingard six months to return to the field and he had to do so in the Championship, ending the season on loan with Derby “He’s an intelligent footballer,” said Southgate, who was joined in the dressing room after the match by Roy Hodgson.

“He’s got very clean feet, sharp coming in from the lane, good movement. He’s more the kind of wide player who’s going to play and follow, but he’s also got a goal in him because he’s a calm finisher.

“He’s been a player at United since very young, physically a late developer and they’ve had to wait for him.”

Unfortunately, Lingard’s chance only came about due to Alex Pritchard’s misfortune. The Tottenham winger was one of England’s better players in what was a frustrating display, but was forced off after 55 minutes and left the stadium on crutches, with his right foot in a protective boot.

“We have to have a look,” Southgate said. “It’s an ankle injury – didn’t look very good when he was coming off.”

England:

Butland, Jenkinson, Moore, Gibson, Garbutt, Chalobah, Carroll (Loftus-Cheek 73), Redmond, Hughes (Ings 45), Pritchard (Lingard 55), Kane.

Sweden:

Carlgren, Nilsson-Lindelof, Baffo, Helander, Augustinsson, Khalili (Quaison 87), Hiljemark, Lewicki, Tibbling (Larsson 78), Guidetti (Ishak 82), Thelin.