CONFIDENCE IS KEY: Hodgson wants his young side to be cocky

The Three Lions boss and his 23-man squad touched down in France yesterday - complete with their lucky lion mascot.

He made his debut before last week's game against Portugal and the players have decided to adopt him for the tournament.

Chris Smalling was handed the job of escorting him to the team's hotel in Chantilly, with the players thinking about giving fans the chance to name him.

But boss Hodgson had a serious message for his stars, telling them he has had enough of England playing down their chances at major tournaments.

England's squad is brimming with young talent like Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Dele Alli, John Stones, Eric Dier and Raheem Sterling.

With an average age of 25, England are the youngest squad at the tournament.

But despite failing to win anything since the World Cup in 1966, Hodgson wants his players to strut their stuff.

"The message is we have to show confidence in ourselves," he said.

"I would like the players to show as much confidence in themselves as we, the coaching staff, have in them and we know we have a lot of very talented footballers."

"The one thing we don't have is a lot of experience but often the energy and enthusiasm the young players will show will make up for that."

England qualified for France with a perfect 10 out of 10 record.

Since then they have beaten world champions Germany in Berlin and warmed up for the Euros with three wins, against Turkey, Australia and Portugal.

They settled in at their Chantilly base, just outside Paris, yesterday ahead of Saturday's opening Group B game against Russia in Marseille.

Hodgson added: "We are relaxed and we think we are in decent form and just hoping we can show that on the field."

"It's what we've been looking forward to for such a long time."

"We qualified quite early so we've had our minds on this moment for a long time and it's just great to be here."