Theo Walcott wants to finish the European Under-21 Championships on a high after forcing his way back into Stuart Pearce's starting XI ahead of Monday's final.

The Arsenal forward was controversially dropped for England's Group B victory over Spain but Pearce recalled him for Friday's semi-final against hosts Sweden and the 20-year-old scored in the penalty shoot-out.

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Pearce: Final will be about character

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"We can't wait for the final now," Walcott said. "We have two days to recover and prepare, and everyone will be buzzing. We have 23 players in the squad who have been fantastic throughout the tournament."

He added: "It's been fantastic here in Sweden, the weather has been great and hopefully we'll have happy memories by Monday night.

"We've worked hard to get here, through the finals and all through the qualifiers, but we still haven't done anything yet. We still need to get our name on that trophy."

Sweden came so close to knocking England out at Gothenburg's Gamla Ullevi stadium, coming back from 3-0 down to force penalties and Pearce's youngsters down a man after Fraizer Campbell's sending off.

"All credit to Sweden, we maybe took our foot off the gas and it's not like us," Walcott said.

"They just showed how dominant they have been all through this tournament, but it showed great character from all the lads coming back from that after going down to 10 men again.

"And we finally won a penalty shoot-out. People are quite surprised, but we've been practising and all the lads were confident.

"You've just got to get used to your favourite penalty and that's what we've been doing and it's paid off. The players can all be proud."

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