England v Wales preview
The most anticipated game of the whole Euros is almost with us. England vs Wales. There are many twists and sub plots to this game and just as many of them are off the pitch as on it!
Some may say it’s the first Premier league fixture of the new season as there will be up to 21 Premier league players on view! The notable exception of course is Real Madrid’s current best player, Gareth Bale (yes that’s a controversial start to the post eh!).
Others may say England are lucky that the game is going ahead with their fans in constant running battles with the Russians, the French and the police and having already received a soft warning from UEFA, England are walking a tightrope even if the majority of their fans were more ‘sinned against then sinning’
Anyway it could well be that the result doesn’t even matter, except for British pride as both teams could qualify with possibly three teams going through from the group due the strange set up of the Euros this time around where only 8 of the 24 teams will be eliminated at the group stage.
The final twist in the tale is that the Russians could still get kicked out for their own football hooligans as they are on a more severe warning level from UEFA. This is not a remote possibility but a very real one if their fans don’t behave in the build up to their last game against Wales.
There has been a lot of banter in the build up to the game with most of it fortunately being light-hearted. It centres around the ‘you’re not good enough to get into our team and well you won’t get into our team either then!’ Very school playground stuff but at least a bit of fun and a welcome distraction, from seeing England fans being set on firstly by the Russians, then by our great ‘friends’, the French (but we’re used to that treatment from the French as anyone will know if you’ve been on holiday in France!) and finally the French police with a mix of overreaction to events and Inspector Clouseau style policing!
England v Wales preview: best combined XI
I do believe in the best combined XI being Gareth Bale plus ten English players. However I also believe Bale is good enough to win the game by himself for Wales. So put simply stop Bale and you win. If you look at Wales performances and results with and without Bale you will know what I mean. He netted six vital goals in the qualifying stages. Without his goals Wales would have finished fourth.
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England v Wales preview: Roy Hodgson’s starting XI
So the big question is who will the England manager, Roy Hodgson pick for this afternoon’s game. The performance against Russia was, as everyone agrees very good. The result however was a disappointment. There were many great performances including Lallana, Rooney and Dier, but some poor and some very poor performances.
Sterling was full of energy but didn’t achieve much so was ultimately disappointing. Harry Kane was by far the worst England player and should be replaced by Vardy. Kane looked lacklustre and while everyone around was giving 100 percent he was giving about 50 percent! There is no guarantee any changes will be made as the last performance was good so Hodgson may keep the same starting eleven rather than look at the obvious weak spots.
Joe Hart was also poor in the Russia game but it was probably more to having faced only one shot in the whole 90 minutes and then suddenly the second shot came in the last few minutes which caught him cold. Besides Vardy, Hodgson could even bring in someone like Milner as this could be like a tough, intense Premier league battle and there is not many tougher out there than our James! Possibly Ryan Bertrand will come in for Danny Rose as Bertrand is more of a defensive defender as opposed to the more attcking Danny Rose. Facing Bale will should be the deciding factor in any possible team changes for Hodgson. His starting eleven against Russia was brave and attacking but perhaps what’s needed today is the Hodgson of old!
