“Gutted” Dan Burn reflects on England's World Cup semi final defeat

England were within 10 minutes of a World Cup final on Wednesday night but threw it all away.

There has been a conspiracy all through the tournament that Argentina were being helped by FIFA to win the competition again, but FIFA didn't even need to help them on Wednesday.

Unless they paid Thomas Tuchel to throw the game. England took the lead on 55 minutes via Anthony Gordon and then immediately put the brakes on. It was like watching Newcastle last season.

On 75 minutes, Tuchel started throwing defenders onto the field. Argentina took that as the sign that England were going to sit back and gratefully accepted the invitation to bombard the Three Lions' defence. It was inevitable that they would score one, and once they did, it was only ever going to go one way, and then two minutes into stoppage time, Lauturo Martinez added to Enzo Fernandez's equaliser to send England into the Third Place Playoff.

England had just 12% possession between Gordon's opener and Fernandez's equaliser. Absolutely embarrassing stuff. Newcastle's Dan Burn was thrown on late on to try and repel the Argentina attack before then being thrown up front to try and snatch a late equaliser.

Dan Burn was gutted to miss out on the World Cup final

Speaking after the game (via The Shields Gazette), Burn was 'gutted', saying he felt it was England's time and lamenting how close they came. 

“I think when you come within sort of 10-15 minutes of a World Cup final and then don’t get it done, it hurts.

“Obviously, I’m very gutted right now, but I’m so proud of what the team has done. We don’t even think anyone gave us a chance coming into this.

“The brotherhood that we spoke about just took us a long way, and if I’m being honest, I thought we’d do it.

“I just had that feeling that this was our time, but I think Argentina showed why they’re world champions and they’ve been there and they’ve done it.”

Dan Burn will be given a hero's welcome 

Burn isn't due home yet, with the 'Bronze Final' still to play on Saturday against France, who were dumped out by Spain on Tuesday.

When Burn does return to Newcastle, he will receive a hero's welcome for sure, though. His heroics against Mexico will not be forgotten in a hurry.

We're proud of you, BDB. When you see Thomas Tuchel, tell him from everyone at NUFC Blog that that was HIS fault. Cheers.