Adam Bendall 'super proud' of Para Lions

England men's Blind squad head coach Adam Bendall expressed his pride in his players after the Para Lions placed second at the IBSA European Blind Football Championship at the weekend.

Bendall’s team were beaten 1-0 by France in the final to secure the silver medal at the tournament in Strasbourg on Sunday.

And the Para Lions embarked on an inspiring run to the final, finishing as runners-up.

“I’m super proud of the players,” said Bendall. “They gave everything in the game.

“We had a gameplan, we worked on it and it showed in the game. We nullified the number ten quite a lot of times and he had one moment in the game where he scored and unfortunately for us, he did that.

“I felt we battled really well; I thought we had lots of chances in the game and maybe a few decisions didn’t go our way.”

After losing their opening game against the hosts – who they would meet again in the final – England drew with Germany in their next group outing, before running out 8-0 winners over Greece to advance to the semi-final.

A 1-0 win over Türkiye booked the Para Lions’ place in the final but despite the scoreline, Bendall outlined the ‘bigger picture’ for his squad.

“Hopefully it was a good game of Blind football for people to watch and get involved in and love the sport,” he continued.

“We’re disappointed to lose a final but there’s a bigger picture for this team. It’s a very young team. We’ve got someone that only started playing Blind football in September and now he’s at a European final.

“That average age of the team is really young, so hopefully they’ll stick around for longer and we can maybe one day win a competition.”