England recorded their first win of Euro 2016 after coming from a goal down to beat Wales 2-1.
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A string of impressive performances in the Premier League, including a brace in the 5-2 defeat by Arsenal, saw Vardy involved for England again, this time at Wembley, but only as a late substitute, replacing goalscorer Theo Walcott for the last seven minutes.
The victory ends a run of five successive finals games under Hodgson without a win and means that a single point in the final game against Slovakia should be enough to see them through to the knockout stages regardless of the result between Wales and Russian Federation.
Recall that Wales defeated Slovakia in their opening Group B fixture, England managed a 1-1 draw against Russian Federation in their first game.
‘It is only one more game in the group, so no one wants to get too excited but the atmosphere is unbelievable and the togetherness here is unbelievable, ‘ said Sturridge.
Cahill is certainly not the quickest defender around and Smalling was sent off in the FA Cup final for Manchester United last month when he was exposed in a couple of one-on-one situations. “They’re no pushovers, but we know their weaknesses from what we’ve seen”.
“We were expected to find it tough against a good team and it was, but you can’t tell me that my players deserved that”.
Team-mate Gareth Bale had put Wales in front in the first half with a free-kick, but England responded after the break.
And, despite some valiant defending from Ashely Williams and teammates, they could not hold out for the draw that would have put them on the verge of the last-16.
Bale said England could not match Wales for pride and passion and added that the Three Lions “big themselves up without doing anything yet”.
England began to exert more pressure on Wales in seek of the win, Rooney’s influence in midfield was growing. They had been on such a good run coming into this tournament, we knew they would be disappointed after a point against Russian Federation and they would come on strong.
“Hopefully we will get another win to top the group”, he said. We played so well against Russian Federation and conceded in the 93rd minute.
“I was kind of counting on us seeing out the first half and then making a change, but the goal meant it was pushed on to me a bit”.
Daniel Sturridge described the victory over Wales as “a brilliant feeling” after his 92nd-minute goal kept England in the fight for qualification from Group B.
“We have waited so long to be here but there was always going to be disappointments along the way”.
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“I thought we were doing OK, but I thought there were other aspects of our game which we could bring to the game”, he said.
