England came from a goal down to clinch a vital 2-1 win over Wales on Thursday thanks to Daniel Sturridge’s last-gasp victor at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens.
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“It took a lot of probing and effort to get the chances we got, I am very pleased we now have four points from two games which in my opinion is the minimum we deserved from the performances”, added Hodgson.
For the second game running at Euro 2016, Bale put Wales ahead from a direct free-kick, but England substitutes Jamie Vardy and Sturridge struck in the second half to give England victory. Wales plays Russian Federation in its final game on Monday in Toulouse while group leader England takes on Slovakia in Saint-Etienne.
But Bale is confident Wales can bounce back against Russian Federation and seal the victory needed to earn a place in the knockout stage of the tournament.
Asked if the better side won, Coleman replied: “Would you be asking that question if they hadn’t had scored in the last 30 seconds?”
Smith expects Hodgson to rotate his squad for Monday’s game with Slovakia and thinks the England boss could use the clash to experiment with his formation and tactics.
“The danger of this one being the middle one was everyone was looking at this – the Battle of Britain”.
“We’ve got one game to go and we need to finish the job on Monday”. “I will just go out on the training pitch and try and give my best”.
“We’ve taken a lot of attacking players with us on this occasion, so the options are there”.
“You know you’re going to be up against it from the start, it was a tough game, but we did everything we could to keep them at bay”.
But Rooney has refused to rise to the bait and wished Chris Coleman’s side luck for the remainder of the competition.
At 18 years, 228 days, Rashford became England’s youngest player to appear in a major tournament, surpassing a record previously held by his Manchester United team-mate Rooney. “I think it’ll be a feature of the tournament, and watching France play Albania last night, it was similar when Pogba and Griezmann came on the field – they got the victory they looked like they might be denied”.
Upvote six players to start, and we’ll cram them into an appropriate formation.
“When the chances don’t go in and you’ve compounded your task by conceding that Gareth Bale goal, it really is a happy moment when both the substitutes score”. So to lose like that is gut-wrenching.
Sturridge had not netted for England since his goal in the 2-1 defeat to Italy at the 2014 World Cup.
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The result left Wales needing to beat Russian Federation in Toulouse on Monday to guarantee one of the two automatic qualifying berths.
