'We got fans believing again': Former England player Paul Ince says Euro 2020 team will 'grow'

Paul Ince tells ITV News the England team put the country back on the footballing map and "produced the goods"

Former England player Paul Ince said the loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final on penalties leaves a "bitter taste" but that the team will "grow and grow and get better".

"We always believed this would be our time," the former Manchester United star told ITV News.

"But on the day when we needed to perform at our best, I think we fell short."

Despite the heartbreak, Ince said the team had put a smile back on people's faces after a difficult year and had "done the country proud".

The midfielder, capped 53 times for England, believes the team "will move forward" and their performance put the "nation back on the map" and would make other teams fear them going into the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

"This is a very, very young team and can only grow and get better. "As much as the players and the staff will be disappointed... you can sit down and believe that we can now push forward, we can get better. A lot of these players now have tournament experience, they won't be fazed going into the World Cup. It's all about the learning curve, these players have learned along the way and produced the goods."

He added: "If you look at the whole package, we've had a fantastic tournament and no one at the start of this campaign would have envisaged we would get there.

"We've to take the positive out of this campaign."