World Cup

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Attendance: 39,991

World Cup | Quarter-Finals

Jul 7, 2018 at 3pm UK

Sweden
0-2
England

FT(HT: 0-1)

Maguire (30'), Alli (59')

David Seaman: 'Jordan Pickford proving people wrong'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 08 July 2018

Former England goalkeeper David Seaman believes that Jordan Pickford is proving people wrong with his performances at this summer's World Cup.

Former England goalkeeper David Seaman has said that he believes Jordan Pickford is relishing proving people wrong at this World Cup.

Pickford has made a number of crucial saves throughout England's run to the semi-finals so far and was named man of the match during the 2-0 quarter-final victory over Sweden on Saturday.

Before the tournament began there was a sizeable debate as to who should be England's number one, with Pickford having come off the back of a difficult season with Everton, but Seaman believes that he is now beginning to prove himself as a top-class keeper.

"He's not lacking in confidence at all. You can see when he makes good saves he loves to celebrate them, and why not?" Seaman told BBC Radio 5 live.

"He's doing this on the world's biggest stage and he's coming off the back of a little bit of criticism and he's relishing in the fact that he's proving people wrong and telling them he is Jordan Pickford and he will do it his way.

"People were having a go about how tall he was. My first answer was 'hang on a minute, I think our most capped goalkeeper was a similar size to Jordan, if not smaller, in Peter Shilton', so that was nothing to do with it.

"Some of the criticism he got for the goal [against Belgium] when he went with the top hand was a little bit unjust, I just thought it was questionable but that was about it. But boy has he replied in the right way."

England's next match will see them face Croatia in the World Cup semi-final.