Gareth Southgate believes his group made a mental leap at the Nations League as England's attention turns to Euro 2020 glory.
Jordan Pickford was the penalty shoot-out hero against Switzerland on Sunday as the Three Lions prevented the inaugural finals ending in deflating fashion, just three days after Holland came back to win their semi-final 3-1 in extra-time.
It was England's second penalties triumph in the space of a year and victory saw them improve on last year's fourth-place finish at the World Cup, with Nations League bronze medals acknowledgement of the progress being made.
Gareth Southgate believes England have taken a major step forward at the Nations League
Southgate knows they hit a 'certain level' on the field in Portugal and need to kick on, but England's manager has been impressed by the group's winning mentality and hunger.
'I think, for me, the significant step is the level of disappointment that we haven't left here having gone to the final and won the trophy,' the former defender said after the 0-0 draw with the Swiss was followed by a 6-5 penalty shoot-out win in which Pickford scored before saving from Josip Drmic.
'And that took, I have to say, some lifting over the last couple of days for everybody because none of us were satisfied.
'We think we played fine on Thursday but made ridiculous mistakes, so it was important that we responded with a high level of performance.
'The players adapted really well, we changed the shape, and they carried that out really well and we should have won the game.
Jordan Pickford was the hero as England beat Switzerland on penalties to finish third
'We deserved to win the game with the opportunities we created and the number of times we hit the woodwork so the healthy thing for me was that it was a good response.
'Some really good discussions over the last couple of days about our dissatisfaction with only getting as far as we have, and a real determination for all of us that we recognise now that
