Faced with a last 16 tie against England after a stoppage-time victor against Austria put his team into the Euro 2016 knockout stage, Iceland’s coach had a chilling message for Roy Hodgson, “I am not afraid”. “I think not many teams will play the starting XI throughout the whole tournament”, he explained. People have spoken about this before, and they said he same about the European U21 championships last summer.
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Victory over Iceland would see England play either France or the Republic of Ireland in the quarter-finals, with Spain, Italy, Germany or Slovakia waiting in the semis, but Kane says Roy Hodgson’s squad are not daunted by whatever the tournament throws at them.
Harry Kane insists he is not suffering from fatigue and says the England squad are calm and focused about being in the supposed more hard half of the draw at Euro 2016.
Placed in Group B alongside relative minnows Russia, Wales and Slovakia, the England players endured a tough time breaking down stubborn defences and could only score thrice in their three group matches.
“We’re pretty calm. There’s been a lot of talk about being on this side of the draw and who we could face but we’re a confident bunch of players”, he added.
“Maybe a bit of fortune will favour us soon”.
“Our ratio of creating chances and taking chances is not good, that needs to be improved and everyone is aware of that so it will be nice if we can start with that on Monday evening”, Hogdson said.
“We want to beat Iceland and progress to the quarterfinals and see who we get from there”.
“We fancy ourselves against anyone and we’re very confident in our ability”.
“We do need to be more clinical”, he added. “But it’s not just the finishing, I think a few passes and crosses could have been a bit better”. We have to try and rectify that and do the best we can.
“I fear it won’t differ enormously from our group games because Iceland aren’t an expansive team”, Hodgson told FA TV on Thursday.
Despite the team’s struggles in the final third, Rooney, who has been pulling the strings from a deeper midfield position, said the talent in the side meant he felt less pressure to deliver.
“You see it a club level as well, there’s teams that can put in good performances and can make it hard for the big clubs”, he said.
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“We have missed some chances in this tournament so far, but you have to be patient when they don’t go in. We’re 100 percent confident that we can progress if we play the way we know we can”.
