England defender John Stones has backed Raheem Sterling to win Player of the Tournament at Euro 2020.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's final against Italy, Stones says he's a 'big fan' of his Manchester City teammate.
Sterling has been in the spotlight following Wednesday's win over Denmark, with many believing he went down too easily to win a penalty in extra-time.
The spot-kick proved to be decisive, with England winning 2-1 as a result.
"I think what he's done for us, and the unselfish part of his game kind of goes unspoken about," Stones said at a press conference today.
"As players we see it and he's been a great threat going forward and how direct he's been in the games.
"It's been great playing with him and I'm sure he'll giving everything on Sunday and being direct, hopefully get another goal and see where it takes us."
We're live with #ThreeLions defender John Stones to look ahead to Sunday's #EURO2020 final: https://t.co/jGIGtv25TC
— England (@England) July 9, 2021
Reacting to the scrutiny on the controversial decision on Wednesday, Stones says the England players have learned to block out external noise.
"I think it's part of parcel of football now," he said.
"The decisions and everything that's surrounding the game with VAR and different referees that we are not used to seeing in the Premier League coming from different nations, different leagues that they play in, it's difficult when those sort of things happen and you just kind of have to blank it out and go ahead."
Resilient
The defender says the wider resilience of England to various setbacks throughout the tournament has been an important part of their progress.
"The first goal we conceded in the tournament and it was probably inevitable that it was going to happen at some point and I think how we dealt with that situation and that deflation a little but was a sign of a real winning team," he explained.
"We got the ball straight out of the net, we ran back up to the halfway line and everyone seemed to block it out and kept focused on what we needed to do.
"I think from that incident that you've told me about is progression and what we've learned from instances like that and we can only keep improving, keep going forward and try to control what we can control in the games."
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