Harvey Elliott hails impact of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk in helping him become a leader after stunning match-winning brace for England U21s

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Harvey Elliott hailed the impact of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk in helping him become a leader after he produced a match-winning brace to fire England to successive Under-21 Euros finals.
Elliott produced two moments of magic in the second half against the Netherlands and as one of those in the leadership group this time around, compared to two years ago when he played more of a bit part role, he is relishing the extra responsibility.
'At so many moments throughout the season the likes of Mohamed Salah has had to score important goals, winning goals,' Elliott said.
'Towards the end of the season [Virgil] Van Dijk came up and scored a header in the 90th minute.
'I think things like that, to not give up, to keep going to the final whistle and take these opportunities, I think that's leadership.
'You can speak as much as you want on the pitch, you can say whatever, but at the end of the day when the moment comes and you need to show up, and you need to, for example, in my situation, score a goal.
The Liverpool star broke the deadlock with a fearsome drive with his weak foot into the net
'It's about how you take that, and those opportunities are vital.
'Today I'm just so happy I was able to contribute and get the two goals to win us the game.'
Is he ready to pull another rabbit out of the hat in Saturday's finale?
'Who knows? In the final it could be someone else,' Elliott added.
'I just hope I can keep the team spirits high and give the motivation to the team, that it doesn't have to be me or the attackers, it can be anyone in the team, because we're all amazing players and we deserve to be here.'
One thing that has been ever-present during this tournament is that England's players are operating on belief, rather than hope.
As for any fear on Germany or France, who they will face in the final, there is none and if there was it would be the beginning of the end, Elliott conceded.
'We all deserve to be here,' he said.
'The squad is incredible in terms of the quality, in terms of how we play football as a team, and the togetherness we have.
'The moment we have fear within ourselves is the moment it goes wrong.
'I think now, especially after the Spain game, the fear isn't there anymore. We can take on any team, we can play to the best of our abilities and we go into every game now thinking that we can win because we have the players, we have the squad, and we have the backing from the manager as well.
'There is no fear, it's just about us going out and delivering and we're doing that at the minute.'