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| Roy Hodgson is expecting a difficult encounter when his England team take on Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine in their back-yard on Tuesday.
Ukraine need a win to take their place in the quarter-finals but having seen them despatch Sweden in their first game, and hold France for 45 minutyes in the second, Hodgson believes they will pose some serious questions to England as they both look to progress.
"I think Ukraine have done well; This is an even group, you know: France beat Ukraine, but I watched the first half when Ukraine actually dealt with the French attacks quite well," said the Manager.
"Obviously the Ukrainians have beaten the Swedes, which is never an easy thing to do. So we’re aware of the fact that we’re playing against not only a host nation, with the support that brings, we’re actually also playing against a bona fide good football team, with a lot of quality players and a lot of experienced players.
"So we know what we are up against. It’s up to us now to try and find the antidote by playing well."
A draw for England will be enough to take them into the knock-out phase of the competition but Hodgson says playing for a point is a 'dangerous' game to play and he will be sending his team out with victory their aim.
"I have never really understood how you do play for a draw. I think to play for a draw is dangerous if it means allowing the opponents to have the initiative," continued Hodgson during the interview with UEFA.com.
"You allow them to have the ball, and you just try and camp somewhere deep in your half so you’ve always got someone behind the ball. Because when you do that you are inviting them into your penalty area all the time. And as we saw the other night, it doesn’t have to be a good ball in the penalty area that costs you a goal; it can be a shot which ricochets off somebody and bounces kindly for someone who is in the box."
He added: "I think the only way you can play for a draw is to play your football and try and score goals, and the good thing is that, knowing that a draw will suffice is a little bit easier for you than knowing you’ve got to win the game.
"Sometimes if you go a goal down when you know you’ve got to win the game, you have to sort of throw caution to the wind. And any time you throw caution to the wind, you leave yourself very exposed on the counter-attack.
"So if we’ve got an advantage then it is that: that it’s the opponents who have got to, if anything, take the risk the longer the game goes on, and we will have opportunities on the counter attack."
We'll have more from Hodgson and captain Steven Gerrard when they speak to the media at the official UEFA matchday -1 press conference in Donetsk on Monday afternoon.
The FA |
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