Former Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Simpson leads England youngsters to final

Hurst’s under-20s came from behind to defeat Italy 3-1 in Jeonju, South Korea, and they will now go on to face Venezuela in Sunday’s final.

Liverpool-bound striker Dominic Solanke bagged a brace and Everton’s Ademola Lookman the other as England captured the imagination of the country.

“It’s a dream to take a team to a World Cup final,” said Simpson, who managed Town from 2008 until 2010.

“I was born in 1966 and that was the last time we did it. We have a whole group of people that have supported us so well and we now want to do ourselves justice in the final.

“The preparation for the final has begun. I said to the players before we left the pitch ‘enjoy this, but let’s get out heads on the final now’.”

Italy raced out of the blocks and took an early advantage in the second minute after England failed to react to Rolando Mandragora’s quick free-kick following Lewis Cook’s handball.

Mandragora’s short pass to Matteo Pessina gave the Como loanee midfielder enough time to pick out Andrea Favilli behind the England defence. The on-loan Ascoli striker cut inside and laid the ball off to Orsolini to curl in a left-footed effort from 20 yards for his fifth goal of the tournament.

But England were on the front foot for much of the match and finally equalised in the 66th minute when former Wolves loanee Sheyi Ojo found space on the right wing before he whipped in a cross which Zaccagno could only parry to the feet of Solanke to volley in from 12 yards.

England continued to press after their leveller and they nudged ahead for the first time in the match 11 minutes later when another Ojo cross caused chaos in the Italy defence before the ball fell kindly for Lookman to smash home from close range.

The match became more open as Azzurri pushed men forward for an late equaliser but the Young Lions extended their lead three minutes from time as Solanke tried his luck from long-range.

“We were absolutely magnificent from the first whistle,” added Simpson.

“I know we went a goal down early on through a slight little lapse in concentration and good play from Italy to catch us out.

“But after that, the way we applied ourselves and the discipline that we kept, and the goals, it was a fantastic performance worthy of winning any game at any level of football.

“We knew if we kept the ball and made the Italians chase round the field then in the last 25 minutes we could really cause some damage and it went exactly how we wanted.”