Rooney made his 116th global appearance during Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Slovakia, passing David Beckham to become England’s most-capped outfield player.
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Sturridge was so close to netting just three minutes after coming on when he glanced a close-range effort wide from an inviting Theo Walcott cross, and Lallana dragged a strike just past the post. “Adam scored the goal to get us off to an excellent start (in the campaign)”.
He said: “From my point of view, and a few of the other players, we were saying “keep patient, keep playing the way we are doing and keep grinding them down” because they were getting further and further back towards the end of the game.
Finally we did get the goal and it’s [Lallana’s] first goal for England, so good luck to him”.
But after substitute Theo Walcott was denied a late victor by the offside flag, Lallana struck his first worldwide goal to break the hearts of the home side and give England a positive start in their qualification campaign for the 2018 tournament in Russian Federation.
Lallana, who went goalless in his first 26 appearances under Roy Hodgson, was glad to be off the mark after nearly three years of trying.
When asked about the letter by during the pre-match conference, Allardyce, 61, said he “might be able to oblige”. We probably should have finished the game off by the time we scored the victor and that is one of the things we are going to have to improve on: “being that bit more ruthless”.
Former England striker Shearer hailed Lallana’s display, stating that he was England’s best player on the day, and suggested to The Sun that his goal was a reward for his performance. After the match, manager Sam Allardyce batted away questions about Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney’s position in the team.
“When we finished, he said: ‘Here’s a lucky coin for you.’ So I said: ‘Thank you very much.’ In the end we had a little bit of luck and we won, so it’ll stay with me”.
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Rooney is set to become England’s most-capped outfield player when he makes his 116th appearance in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Slovakia.
