Discussing his emotions heading into the game, England interim manager Lee Carsley said:
“Proud. It’s not something that I thought that much about until recently.
“I think when I saw the draw I obviously was fully focused on the U21s, and I thought that ‘that’s going to be a good game’.
“I didn’t realise obviously until two weeks ago that I was actually going to be here, so I am excited by it.
“It’s not something I’m overawed by. I’m excited with the challenge. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the players. I think they’ll enjoy the atmosphere.
“It’s a good game for them to come back to off the back of a big disappointment, so hopefully we can perform.”
Kane: England did well to get to Euro 2024 final
England captain Harry Kane:
“I think we did extremely well to get to the final.
“It wasn’t an easy tournament. I don’t think we reached the levels in a lot of the games that we know we can, but the positive thing from that is the fact that we got to the final.
“As a team, we can take a lot of positives from the summer, a lot of positives from the last four years especially.
“But ultimately, it’s about improving and there are areas that we can improve, especially in the games when we look back at the summer, so that’s now our task as players, to try to get better and these games in the next few days are a great opportunity to do that.”
Carsley will play to England players’ strengths
England interim manager Lee Carsley:
“We have tried to to work on three or four different style of play. We have to play to the players’ strengths.
“The key to coaching is utilising the players’ abilities and the profile that they have got. Hopefully we’ll see that tomorrow.”
Carsley has no concerns over Grealish and Rice
Responding to whether or not had any concerns about fielding former Republic of Ireland youth internationals Jack Grealish or Declan Rice tomorrow night, Carsley said:
“No not at all.
“We spoke not only about Jack and Declan, we spoke to the whole squad about the atmosphere. We expect it to be exciting, passionate and loud.
“But it’s no different to what players are used to in Premier League games or high-level games. I think they will be ready for whatever comes out.”
Leave a Reply