England will not be satisfied with reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup as they have the skill and mentality to win the tournament, playmaker Raheem Sterling has said ahead of the team's final warm-up match against Costa Rica on Thursday, 7 June.
Fans and pundits have muted expectations of England's World Cup campaign given the team's underwhelming displays at the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 European Championships, but Sterling has bolder ambitions.
I’m not coming here to spend four, five, six weeks of my life to say, ‘let’s see what happens and hopefully last 16’.Raheem Sterling, England Centre-forward to Reuters
"We've got 23 very good players and we all have the mentality to say that we're going to win the games that we win and what can stop us?
“If 23 players want to win it, then 23 players have got that mentality. A quarter-final won't be good enough, at all, because you want to win it."
England full-back Kyle Walker believes that the unity within the squad will be key if the team are to go deep in Russia.
The manager has brought some brilliant ideas and we’ve all bought into it. That’s the environment that we need to take into the World Cup because the quality in the team is going to show for itself but also the togetherness is going to pull us through.Kyle Walker, team-mate of Sterling at both Manchester City and England to Reuters
Sterling echoed his compatriot’s words.
"Everyone here gets along no matter what club you're from," he added. "Once we get here we're always together, always having a laugh and a joke, so it's great to see."
England open their World Cup campaign against Group G rivals Tunisia on 18 June. Panama and Belgium are the other teams in the group.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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