England sealed their place at Euro 2016 last month and never remotely looked like squandering the chance of joining France (1992 and 2004 qualifying), Czech Republic (2000), Germany and Spain (both 2012) as the only countries to achieve a flawless qualifying record.
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The Arsenal winger beat the offside trip and latched on to Kyle Walker’s incisive pass before belting the ball into the top corner to seal the win which sent England to France on the back of a 10-match winning streak.
Roy Hodgson claimed that he always believed England would recover from their toils at the World Cup to progress unbeaten to next summer’s European Championship as his side completed a flawless qualifying record on a night marred by crowd trouble in Lithuania. “I’m not trying to change perception of the World Cup because we didn’t get out of the group, lost the first two games and that finished us off”.
“These players in Vilnius, I am sure they will feel they have done enough to keep their names in the front of my thinking and that is all I can ask from them“.
And Bale wants further progression as Wales head off to their first major tournament since 1958, while he also praised the supporters who brought a party atmosphere to the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday.
“They deserve it. You get team spirit from working hard for each other on the pitch and coming through tough situations and big challenges, and they’ve done it time after time”. But qualification was the main thing.
TEAMtalk rates and slates the England players’ performances following Monday’s 3-0 Euro 2016 qualification win over Lithuania. We’ve won 10 out of 10 and the confidence is sky high.
“We had a game plan here and we knew what we had to do”.
He has taken on board all of the advice he is given from his manager and coaching staff and, when he comes to England, the work we try to do with him.
“So when I have a chance to give them a little rest, I have tried to do so, so that will account to a few extent for the amount of players we have used”.
Igoris Pankratjevas did not hang around to give his verdict on the match.
“The pressure become greater and greater every time you don’t make it, especially if you have a good squad which we have”.
“Everything has its ending”.
It was a fitting end to a qualifying campaign that had begun with Bale scoring twice in a narrow 2-1 win in Andorra and proved the precursor to joyous celebrations after the final whistle.
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It is true Hodgson has learnt his lesson, though there remains quite a distinction between his strongest available side and what he thinks his best team is.
