Allardyce added: “I think that he holds a lot more experience at global football than me as an worldwide manager”.
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“When we finished he said: ‘Let me given you a lucky coin.’ Here it is”.
His departure signalled a period of intense pressure from England with Lallana hitting the post, and substitute Theo Walcott seeing a scrambled effort ruled out for offside, before the Liverpool midfielder snatched the last-gasp victor.
For much of the game it was he, not Wayne Rooney, winning a record 116th cap as an England outfielder, who looked the side’s main attacking force as he switched wings and constantly probed a massed defence to try to force an opening.
Allardyce was critical of England’s finishing in Trnava and admitted he was getting “very concerned” before Lallana’s goal after Martin Skrtel had been sent off for the hosts.
After the match English head-coach Sam Allardyce stated that Rooney is free to play in any position he preferred.
“It was a huge relief for me, I’ll tell you that now”, Allardyce said.
Even Thomas Mueller has regained his confidence, putting his perplexing Germany goal drought behind him by scoring twice in the 3-0 win at the start of World Cup qualifying. It’s got us a last-minute victor.
“This is the biggest job I’ve ever had”. “If you’re playing against Slovakia and you keep playing it sideways and backwards, it becomes hard to penetrate”. If nothing else, he’s got his first goal for the Three Lions and it’ll hopefully help spurn him on to get it done week in and week out for the Reds.
“This is a great result for us, completely deserved”. Slovakia were playing at home but never bothered coming out. Here it is. I had it with me in my pocket, we won, so it’ll stay with me.
Elsewhere, Christian Eriksen’s 17th-minte strike handed Denmark a 1-0 win over Armenia as Group E opponents Kazakhstan and Poland played out a 2-2 draw, while in Group C, Azerbaijan earned a 1-0 away win at San Marino.
Poland were given a run for their money as Kazakhstan came back from a two-goal deficit to level things up as the tie ended 2-2 a piece in Group E in Astana.
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“I think we always believed in our ability and there were no nerves or thoughts about the Euros in our minds tonight and I think that showed in our performance”.
