England, playing pretty well, growing into a tournament, getting some luck, options off the bench and a manager ready to use them even at half-time. Well this is a strange situation to be in. Perhaps even better for England is that there's room for improvement and Roy Hodgson plans on improving.
The Three Lions performed well against Russia but couldn't finish the match off and conceded a late equaliser, against Wales they were frustrated for large parts of the second half as they camped in the Welsh half of the pitch and had to wait for a very late winner from Daniel Sturridge, sparking amazing scenes in the crowd and on the pitch.
In the first half though England were disappointing especially going forward and went into the break 1-0 down after Joe Hart's blunder at Gareth Bale's free kick. Hodgson's double substitution, bringing on Jamie Vardy and Sturridge, at half-time changed the game with Harry Kane and especially Raheem Sterling underperforming for the second game.
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And reports coming from the England camp suggest that Sturridge will start ahead of Sterling for the game against Slovakia on Monday evening and Vardy is likely to come in for Kane too. England can finish top if they draw their third match and Wales fail to beat Russia.
Sturridge's turnaround in fortunes is quite incredible after he nearly missed out on the 23 man squad. In Hodgson's side's penultimate warm-up match the Liverpool striker missed out on game time due to an injury and was pictured looking miserable as Marcus Rashford scored on debut in his place.
After recovering from that injury and sitting out of the first game and a half the former Chelsea forward will get the chance from the start in what could be a tournament defining match for England, if they finish top of the group they'll play third place in group A, C or D.
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Hodgson could decide to make more changes if he believes some players who have played the entirety of both matches could do with a rest with Man of the Match against Wales Kyle Walker looking tired towards the end of that match.
(Via: Telegraph)
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Euro 2016, Daniel Sturridge, Football, England, Roy Hodgson