Spurs’ Tripper: I watched the last World Cup on the telly with my dad, now I’m going to Russia

Spurs’ Kieran Tripper is looking forward tom touching down in Russia and getting on with the job of trying to win the World Cup for England.

The wing-back for the Three Lions is in impressive form and hopes to be in Gareth Southgate’s starting 11 against Tunisia next week.

“I watched the last World Cup at my dad’s house,” he said.

”I only made my debut last year for England against France, so to be here now... I’ve worked hard all season with Tottenham, and I’m just delighted to be here.“

His ability to be creative and a dead ball specialist has seen him become an invaluable part of the Englands set-up.

“I try and get forward as much as I can,” he said. “ To create as much as I can. The 3-5-2 is a perfect system for me. The manager wants to play that and I thought we did well against Nigeria.

“When you play the 3-5-2 you’ve got the No8s, it’s like a diamond, so every time you get the ball there’s an option for you. I thought the team did well.“

Of the Nigeria game he said: “They came out for the second half and changed the formation to the same as ours and pulled a goal back, and then it’s just how you manage the game. Their fans were excited, they got a bit of momentum but we dealt with it, we managed the game right and that was a good test for us.”

Chemistry with Lingard...

Jesse’s a quality player. We work hard on the training field, there’s a system and all the players know where everyone’s going to be. We just need to keep working hard. There’s a lot of improvements [to make] but we’ll get there.

Intensity dropped a little in the second half?

I thought we managed the game perfectly. We defended well and countered well. We’re going to get those moments in games and it’s just how you deal with it. I thought we dealt with it well today.

Banter with Belgium lads?

Yeh there was a bit of banter as soon as the groups were named. The lads at Tottenham are top lads and we’re looking forward to meeting each other, but hopefully we can get one over on them.