England boss Roy Hodgson admits he is ready for a
"cup final" against Ukraine in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier.
Hodgson's men travel to Kiev leading Group H on goal
difference and ahead of Ukraine by a point but, with Poland and San Marino to
come, a win for the hosts would put them in the box seat for Brazil.
England, by contrast, finish their qualifying campaign
with testing home games against Montenegro and Poland and are desperate to
avoid the runners-up spot that would see them slip into the play-offs.
"It is two teams, two good teams in the group, both
of which are capable of winning the group, so it's a cup final in that respect
and you have to play well enough to win that game," Hodgson told reporters
at his pre-match press conference on Monday.
"You don't necessarily win games by being cautious
and hoping you don't concede, you win games by getting onto the front foot and
making certain you score more goals than the opposition.
Hodgson has called tomorrow's game a cup final for
England, emphasising that the team that wins will be in a commanding position
to qualify.
"We don't have any qualms about the task ahead of us
or what we need to do, we're fully aware of what we need to do to get a result
and the players are confident that they can produce that performance."
Hodgson has confirmed he will make only one change to the
side that beat Moldova 4-0 at Wembley on Friday night - a replacement for Danny
Welbeck, who misses out through suspension.
That means Kyle Walker will start, despite a furore that
has followed the publication of pictures showing him inhaling legal high
nitrous oxide - laughing gas - from a balloon.
"He has made his apology, admitted his mistake but
it was a long time ago, he'd forgotten it," Hodgson said of the incident,
which happened during the close season.
"It would have been much worse had it happened this
weekend."
0 comments:
Post a Comment