England manager Roy Hodgson insisted match-winners Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge were always going to feature against Wales after the pair scored to seal a 2-1 victory at EURO 2016. In those 23, there’ll be a lot of players who feel hard done-by when not selected.
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Here we look at the permutations for England and Wales ahead of their final group games against Slovakia and Russian Federation respectively.
“The effort and courage were fantastic”.
“If you’d have asked us before the tournament we’d have taken this to be honest”.
Those words were echoed throughout the Welsh camp before they returned from France’s far north to their base camp in Brittany to prepare for the group denouement next Monday, when a draw may be all they need to progress.
“Listen, if you said to me before we came here that it would all be on the last game we’d have accepted that”.
“After we beat Slovakia we knew it was not the time to get too high because we had not accomplished anything yet and now is not the time to be getting down on ourselves”.
Rooney added: “We played some great stuff [against Wales] and it was a great feeling to win the game the way we did and that has nearly qualified us now”.
“Now we need to finish the job off”.
From looking in a weak position in the group, the English now find themselves in first place and can not finish lower than third, likely earning a spot in the last 16 in this enlarged tournament.
Wales go into their final game sitting second in Group B with three points, and Coleman is confident his side have every chance of reaching the knockout stages by claiming a result against Russian Federation, who drew with England and lost to Slovakia. I’m really pleased for him. “It’s an exciting group, because it’s all on the last games”.
It was England’s first victory in the tournament after they had been held 1-1 in their first match against Russian Federation, who managed a victor in the last moment in Marseille.
If both home nations win their final matches then England will top the group with seven points and face one of the best third-placed teams in the next round.
“But we took the chance because he’s worth it and he proved that today”. We’ve got some very exciting players and played some great stuff. “We’ve got to put this to bed quickly”. “That’s because that goal the other night put us under a bit of pressure”.
“Joe had a bang, we think he’ll be alright”, Coleman added.
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Williams’s performancewas given a particularly negative review, with the Swansea City captain receiving a mark of just three out of 10.
