Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson believes the Three Lions can win Euro 2016 this summer. The Swede has led England at three major tournaments during a five-year spell but has never managed to win a trophy. He insists that England should learn to cope with the pressure of penalty shoot-outs if they want to go all the way.
"They have a good team," Eriksson said. "The qualification games, they won everything and they did it with style. They are playing good football as well, so why not?" In fact, England won all ten qualifying matches and finished nine points clear at the top of their group. The Swedish manager left the job after a 3-1 loss on penalties against Portugal in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup. "Without any doubt the pressure when you go to a big tournament is big - and many times, how I remember it, too big on the players," Eriksson added. "You talk about penalty shootouts - England is not famous for winning them. They feel the pressure. But hopefully Roy will do a good job and they will reach the semi-final or the final or win it."
Eriksson, currently head coach of Chinese side Shanghai SIPG, added that England should have won the 2006 World Cup because they were the best team at the tournament. "The last tournament I was in charge, in 2006 in Germany, we all thought that we could reach the semi-final or final, that we could win the tournament because I couldn't see any team that was better than us," the Swedish boss said. "Italy won it. But I don't think Italy played extremely good football. They won it and congratulations of course, but that was our big chance during my time. We should have done better in 2006. We had a good team, we were ready and we believed in ourselves."
England are 17/2 at Bet365 to win Euro 2016 this summer.:
sharpe 7 years ago
That statement sound ridicilaus even then but what about now.! I don't know why always Englanders are so optimistic before big events when they fail every time. The only World Cup won back in 1966, the last Euro semifinal 1996, the last World Cup semifinal 1990 if I'm not mistaken, so what about these numbers?! It's...
That statement sound ridicilaus even then but what about now.! I don't know why always Englanders are so optimistic before big events when they fail every time. The only World Cup won back in 1966, the last Euro semifinal 1996, the last World Cup semifinal 1990 if I'm not mistaken, so what about these numbers?! It's not an accident and the problem is not in England squad lack of players.
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Alexa Alexa 7 years ago
You dont have to be football expert to say this.England has great team,and their main strength is the fact that they dont have too many stars in the team.Lot of players are young and have a big will to show why they are called to represent national team on such a big competition.
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king_david 7 years ago
I agree with Sween Goran Eriksson, in the last ten years tihs has been the best national team of Englad. Curently, England national team has great strikers and that will be their main power and andvantage in the coming Euro Championship in Franc. I belive this tem may take the first place in this Championship.
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Milaneli 7 years ago
Well England always had good squad. Until few years ago when they had Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, they failed to do anything significant on international scene. People were afraid that they will lack new talents since Premier League never had less their own players. But now Kane, Vardy, dele Ali and many others...
Well England always had good squad. Until few years ago when they had Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, they failed to do anything significant on international scene. People were afraid that they will lack new talents since Premier League never had less their own players. But now Kane, Vardy, dele Ali and many others came up and England can upset or maybe reach finals, because there is no overpowered nation at this Euro.
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mannixx 7 years ago
I completely disagree with Sween Goran Eriksson , becouse i think with Roy Hodgson as a coach they arent favorites for the title ,there are a lot of teams that are a lot better than England,and England defence is week and Hodgson called only 3 originals central back Jones( bad season in everton) and Cahill ( wasnt standar...
I completely disagree with Sween Goran Eriksson , becouse i think with Roy Hodgson as a coach they arent favorites for the title ,there are a lot of teams that are a lot better than England,and England defence is week and Hodgson called only 3 originals central back Jones( bad season in everton) and Cahill ( wasnt standar in Chelsea) and Smalling ( average central back player).
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nik92 7 years ago
I would not agree with Mr. Erikson. They won everything in qualification games, that's true, but they had the easiest group. France has by far the best team in the future European Championship, and they are the favorites to win the trophy in front of their fans. Just not to be as a disgrace to the World Championship in...
I would not agree with Mr. Erikson. They won everything in qualification games, that's true, but they had the easiest group. France has by far the best team in the future European Championship, and they are the favorites to win the trophy in front of their fans. Just not to be as a disgrace to the World Championship in Brasil. I think their limit is quarterfinal.
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