Pickford Reveals Everton's Euro Push & World Cup Goals

Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was on post-match media duties following the Three Lions' 1-0 defeat to Japan on Tuesday evening. Here is what the shot-stopper had to say about his targets for the conclusion of the Premier League campaign, as well as this summer's World Cup...

---

- Jordan, talk us through the game from your point of view...

Yes, I hate losing but it's part of football – you can't win them all and it was a good game, a good test against a very good side. They've only lost one of their past 17 games so we knew what we were going into and small moments decide games, which was the case. It's a good experience for us ahead of the tournament in the summer.

- Does it knock confidence at all?

No. We know what we are. We know who we are as England and we know when we get to camp in Miami that we're going to be on it, the boss will push us and we'll be ready for the tournament.

- You won your 82nd cap with England tonight – you overtake Rio Ferdinand with that. You're now level with Raheem Sterling, two behind Ray Wilkins, three behind Gary Neville. Do these stats matter to you?

Yeah, I think it just shows the hard work I put in. I do my best for Everton week-in, week-out, and I'm always striving to improve. I'm only 32, which is young as a keeper, so I'm just striving to keep getting better. I wear the England shirt with immense pride and I think everyone in the country knows how much it means to me. When I'm racking up numbers like that, I think it's a credit to myself and what I'm doing when I'm with my club. When I'm with England, it's about being a leader as well. I'm a leader at Everton and I'm a leader [for England] – I think you can see that when you watch the game. I'm there to give the best version of myself and help others around me.

- Does winning 100 caps come into your thinking?

Yeah, of course. There are goals – but we know the main goal and it's a team game. I've always said, I don't even care if I concede four goals, as long as we win 5-4. It's a team game and I want to win matches.

- Before the England team gets together again, there's a massive period coming up in the Premier League and Everton are pushing for Europe...

Yes. Seven games left and the manager will be pushing game by game now. We're not going to look at Tottenham away on the last day or anything like that, we're going to be focused on our next one – Brentford away next week. Hopefully we'll get the Toffees in Europe.