England coach Gareth Southgate was delighted with the attitude of his players for their 3-1 win against Italy.
The victory confirmed England's qualification for next year's Euros in Germany.
Southgate said: "So hungry, so eager to learn, so together. And you saw that in the performance tonight. We said before that mentality was the main thing. The performance was relentless tonight.
"What was really pleasing was that when we went behind we stayed calm and used the ball calmly from the back. In other big games we have lost the ball too easily. Our forwards worked so hard. When your front players play like that it is a great thing for the team.
"There were times in the first half we were passive near our own goal. The biggest difference in the last couple of years is that we have more legs and physicality in midfield. You need to be outstanding without the ball against world class teams."
Italy went ahead through Gianluca Scamacca before England fought back through a Harry Kane penalty won by Jude Bellingham. Marcus Rashford put England ahead before Kane rounded off the scoring with his second.
Southgate continued: "They [our forwards] are all different and bring different qualities. We have dribblers, speed in behind and players who can come short. But you always need the work ethic. In the biggest games you can't carry players and that really pleased me in the performance.
"Ideally, we would have everyone playing regularly, but you can see Kalvin [Phillips] and Harry [Maguire] were both outstanding tonight. They are both important for us. They are up against really good players at their clubs. Kalvin has Rodri and Kovacic to compete with. But every time Kalvin plays for us he does a good job.
"We need to make sure we are one of the top seeds next month. We need to win our next two games. We want to be in control of that. We need to keep building. There is more to come from this team. This was the toughest qualifying group, with the seedings. People have criticised us for not beating the top teams enough. But we have performed really well."
