THE VOICE OF FOOTBALL
England’s cautious grounds for optimism
England’s European prospects looked somewhat better after beating a French side which, as their goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said, “had a lack of aggressiveness and concentration. It was more about solidarity.”
How, after the horrors of Paris, could it have been otherwise?
Still, after the tepid showing in Alicante, when England treated Spain with such excessive respect, it was unquestionably a good step forward, and there should ideally be more to come.
This, after all, was a team without Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Daniel Sturridge and, yes, Jamie Vardy, that explosive 28-year-old late developer. Recklessly jettisoned by his local club Sheffield Wednesday, he languished for years in non-league football, doing exhausting manual work, before his prolific inspiration of a Fleetwood team that…
