‘This England has harmony compared to previous years’

Peter Crouch and Mason Mount discuss the ups and downs of representing your country at the sport’s highest level

- MIGUEL DELANEY

Peter Crouch and Mason Mount are giddily talking about the World Cups that first got them into football when, with the way memory works, thoughts turn to a moment that was a bit more tense.

Crouch starts discussing the 82nd minute of his second appearance in the tournament, which was at that point a frustrating 0-0 draw against Trinidad and Tobago. He’d obviously been in poor performances against weaker teams before but the concentration of a World Cup made it something else altogether.

“You can feel it in the stadium,” Crouch says. There’s obviously a tremendous pressure on you.” Mount was a mere seven years old at the time, and can only really remember the colours of the competition in the way kids do, but empathises with the intensity of the situation as a fellow professional; the blur”.

England began the bombardment. David Beckham began playing crosses in and, eventually, the 6ft 7in Crouch rose to meet one. It set up a very hard-fought 2-0 win. It was a relief more than anything,” Crouch says. Some of the hugs I felt from my teammates, it felt like there was a weight lifted.”

That speaks to more than just the moment, and the panic England were starting to go through. It raises a question that speaks to the difference between historic teams, the evolution in the national team, and why certain sides might be remembered very differently. Mount is asked whether his England would ever go long in the way that 2006 side did. Would they, to be blunt, seek to hit the big man. The answer is no. Iran beware.