• Euro 2012

Gerrard: Same again and we'll triumph

ESPN staff
June 14, 2012
Steven Gerrard captained England to a 1-1 draw against France on Monday © PA Photos
Enlarge

England captain Steven Gerrard has told his team-mates that they will beat Sweden on Friday if they can reproduce the level reached against France.

England grabbed a commendable 1-1 draw in their Group D opener on Monday, as Joleon Lescott's headed opener was cancelled out by a long-range strike from Samir Nasri.

Roy Hodgson's team have been criticised in some quarters for their negative approach against France, with possession surrendered for much of the game, but Gerrard feels more of the same will be enough to sink Sweden.

Gerrard said: "I would think the same level of performance against France will be good enough to beat Sweden. I would say so with all due respect to Sweden who are a good, strong team, but they are not France.

"I think we can be a little bit more bold and a little bit more ambitious and get at the Swedes a little bit more. We are confident if we reach the same level of performance, it will be enough for a victory.

"Although we are confident, that's not to say we won't be trying to learn from the mistakes we made in the first game.

"We've analysed what we did right and wrong against France and we will be trying to improve on our performance as well.

"I'm really happy with the start we've made to the tournament. It was really solid and we've left ourselves a good platform to build on.

"The boys are confident we will be on four points after this next game and that will be a good start to this group."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Close

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices