England’s Hodgson vindicated for attack-minded squad selection

Gareth Bale’s fine 35-yard free-kick gave Wales the lead before half-time and the last 16 was within tantalising reach at that point.

Daniel Sturridge celebrates scoring England’s second goal during UEFA Euro 2016 Group B match against Wales in Lens.

England now top the group with four points, one point ahead of third-placed Slovakia.

Why not give Vardy and Sturridge a full 90 minutes? “Very lively, but of course he’s new to us – the way we try to play, the way we try to attack and defend”. We are all in this together and when you come off the bench you want to make an impact and luckily I did’.

“The tournament is not over yet”. They conceded against Russian Federation in the last minute and they showed good courage to come back in the second game, so we’ve got to do the same thing.

There is now a huge cry for Hodgson to start with Vardy for the game in St Etienne, although Hodgson says he was always going to have a hard selection ahead of the game.

Smith expects Hodgson to rotate his squad for Monday’s game with Slovakia and thinks the England boss could use the clash to experiment with his formation and tactics.

Former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy believes one man was head and shoulders above the rest as England defeated Wales in Lens yesterday – but it wasn’t anyone with Three Lions on their chest.

Wales could also qualify as one of four best third-placed teams.

“Russia have got experience, they will be hurting after the defeat against Slovakia”. We keep fighting all the way. Unlucky not to hold on but the fans did us proud again!

“We’ve spoken about when we’re on the ball. we need to be better, more relaxed, move the ball like we have been in qualifying”.

England captain Wayne Rooney has sung the praises of manager Roy Hodgson following their 2-1 victory over rivals Wales.

Williams’ message was that the campaign was far from over and that the players should not be despondent.

“Once I turned inside the two defenders, I knew I was going to score. We showed a lot of character today and everyone in the dressing room is delighted”. England came back with more offensive intentions subbing two forwards in the names of Vardy and Sturridge to dynamite a tiresome English attack in the first half.

Swansea left-back Neil Taylor saw his performance rated as four out of 10, along with fellow wing-back Chris Gunter, while every other player in a Welsh shirt was given a mark of five.