Brighton youngster Hinshelwood says this England U21 group can help to ‘break the mould of what people think of English football’ after reaching Euros final | OneFootball

Brighton youngster Jack Hinshelwood says his England Under-21 side are trying to “break the mould of what people think of English football” after reaching the European Championship final.

The Brighton midfielder started only one of the three group-stage matches at the tournament, deputising at right-back in England’s 2-1 loss to Germany.

However, after an impressive display at left-back in the quarter-final against Spain, Lee Carsley opted to keep the 20-year-old in that role against the Netherlands.

He repaid the manager’s faith by putting in yet another excellent performance, winning five of his eight duels and making the most tackles out of any player on the pitch as the Young Lions won 2-1 thanks to a Harvey Elliott double to set up a final with Germany.

“We’ve got to remain humble, we’re in the Under-21s,” Hinshelwood said after the semi-final win. “We’ve got a great group and Lee always talks about how we need to break the mould of what people think of English football.

“We haven’t won a major tournament for 60+ years now. We know that we have amazing individuals in this group. Two years ago, they also had an amazing group and you see what those players are doing now.

“It’s really inspiring for us and really gives us that extra motivation to want to do well and reach that level.”

In his first tournament with the U21s, the Brighton man expressed his delight in reaching the final.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “This is my first international tournament, so it’s great being here and I’ve loved every second. To get to the final is amazing, but we know we’ve got one more job to do now and that’s to bring it home.

“We’ve got such a great togetherness and camaraderie in the group.

“We knew setbacks were going to come throughout the game and obviously their goal came a bit out of nowhere but we showed great fight and have come up with a bit of magic and it was enough to put us through to the final.”