A record victory in England’s first Euro 2016 match was stolen at the death by the head of Russia’s Vasili Berezutski.
The Three Lions have never won an opening contest at the European Championships and it looked like that jinx was about to be broken until the Russian defender outjumped his marker to snatch a point.
While a point in their first match is not a catastrophic result for England, it increases the pressure that is mounting on Roy Hodgson’s side who must now bounce back against a confident Wales side on Thursday night if they want to keep their hopes of winning the tournament alive.
England have been spoken about as a team that looks to be in for a long run at Euro 2016 but their opponents appear to disagree. Prior to the opening game, Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev voiced his opinion that England were the worst seeded team in the competition, while Gareth Bale also took his own shot at Wales’ British rivals. The Real Madrid winger claimed that Welsh players have more desire than their English counterparts, much to the chagrin of Roy Hodgson.
While England outplayed Russia for the most part and only came away with a point, Wales took home the three points with victory over Slovakia in their opener. Heading into the all-British clash in midweek Wales will be full of confidence that they can defeat England for the first time since 1984 and effectively send them home early.
The fact that England will play such an important game against Wales heightens the pressure on the side as not only will they be playing for qualification to the round of 16, but also for bragging rights for years to come.
Hodgson will also have his squad selections closely scrutinised after some questionable decisions made during the Russia game. Captain Wayne Rooney started his first match in midfield for the national team and was effective until substituted for the football-starved Jack Wilshere. The decision not to play Jamie Vardy at all and not utilising his pace and direct runs to hurt the Russians was one that puzzled fans and pundits alike. But with so many attacking players at Hodgson’s disposal he cannot please everyone.
Not only does the English team have to worry about on-field results they now face an external issue that threatens to derail their campaign. English fans (rightly or wrongly) have featured in media reports of crowd violence since even before a ball was kicked at Euro 2016.
It has even got a little too close to home for some squad members with Jamie Vardy’s wife claiming to have been a victim of French police tear gassing fans and UEFA has threatened the FA with expulsion from the tournament should there be any repeats of match day violence as seen at the England versus Russia fixture.
Another draw or a loss to Wales may leave England with a mathematical chance of getting through, but they will want to avoid the stronger teams for as long as possible. Scraping through as one of the top third-placed teams would put them directly into the path of one of Europe’s fellow giants.
All eyes will be on the Stade Felix Bollaert in Lens on Thursday night (AEST) for Euro 2016’s biggest clash yet. We will see whether or not this England squad will underwhelm as others have in recent years, or whether or not they can do their talents justice.
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