What they said: England vs Slovakia

Sport360 staff 03:14 21/06/2016
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  • Despite 90 minutes of pressure, England failed to score against Slovakia in Saint Etienne, surrendering the lead of Group B to Wales despite finishing the three fixtures undefeated.

    After three games of possessional and territorial dominance, England will be wondering how they emerged with just one win to their name.

    Sport360 rounds-up the best of the post-match reaction from the two sides:

    Roy Hodgson, England head coach

    It is very disappointing. Once again we have had all the play and a lot of opportunities in and around the Slovakia box and not been able to take one. It is both frustrating and disappointing, but I believe it will come as we have players in the team who can and will score goals.

    Nathaniel Clyne had a very good game as did Jordan Henderson in front of him. They strengthened their chances of playing in future games and proved we have a very strong squad of players.

    It was a frustrating night and we fully deserved to win. In each of the three games we’ve been the totally dominant team. We’ll be criticised for having so much possession and not scoring goals and I cannot deny that. All I can say is the time will come when we’ll take the chances and some team might be on the end of that fairly soon.

    Gary Cahill, England defender

    We tried, we tried – time and time again. They shut the door in our face. So it’s disappointing for us tonight because in the three games we’ve had the majority of possession. We dominated play from start to finish really, and we couldn’t unlock the door, which is obviously a bit disappointing for us.

    The rhythm was that we had the ball constantly, and we just didn’t quite have that cutting edge to open them up. In games like that, sometimes you need something a little bit special. With the view that I had, they were just sitting back. You need someone to shoot from outside the box or create something, which we nearly did.

    Joe Hart, England goalkeeper

    It was very frustrating – a one-sided game, quite similar to the other two games, and we just didn’t really take our chances. We came up against a really strong goalkeeper today and some really heroic defending, but we’ve dominated all over the pitch and we’re looking good as a team.

    I’ve played a lot of football now and I’ve played in a lot of dominant teams over the years, and I’ve seen results like this happen. It’s what happens in football sometimes, but we’re focused, we’re through to the next round, and we’ve still got our sights set on going a long way in this tournament.

    Jan Kozak, Slovakia head coach

    This game was similar to the match we played in qualifying against Spain. The opposition was very tough. Their line-up was very attack-minded. We were pressed deep, but we tried to get this point – an important point if we wanted to get through to the last 16.

    They’re a top quality team and as time went on, our players were getting tired. England showed their quality and strength, but when you have a chance to get a good result you do everything you can. I didn’t expect to be pressed so deeply. In terms of football qualities, England are better than Wales.

    Before the tournament, I calculated that we could only get four points if we beat Wales. And we lost to them. But football’s like that. I’m very glad to have four points, but we’ll have to wait to see how other matches develop. If we get through to the last 16, we’ll be really happy.

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