England midfielder Adam Lallana says that while the pain of Euro 2016 defeat to Iceland will never go away, the team must move on and focus on World Cup qualification.
The Three Lions suffered a spectacular meltdown in Nice in their European Championship last-16 tie, losing 2-1 despite leading through an early Wayne Rooney penalty. Manager Roy Hodgson resigned moments after the final whistle and Sam Allardyce has since replaced him as England boss.
The new era starts on Sunday with a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovakia and while Lallana admits the memory of Iceland will linger, the Liverpool player says the England squad cannot dwell on it.
“I think it will always hurt anyone who was involved but we have to move on – it’s all we can do,” said Lallana.
“We’ve got a new manager and a lot of new staff so it’s important we start afresh.” While Lallana didn’t feature in the loss to Iceland, he says the entire squad must carry the blame and he was not seeking to detract from his part in the loss.
“Unfortunately for the country in the summer we failed and we’re not shy to hold our hands up that we should have done better.
We should have beaten Iceland and we know we should have done,” he added. England are 1.36 to win World Cup qualifying Group F while Slovakia are 6.00.
The sides played out a scoreless draw in Saint-Etienne in their Euro 2016 group stage encounter but Lallana hopes a fresh impetus can drive England to victory on Sunday. “Sam has made it clear he’s got new ideas and a different philosophy,” he added.
“Training’s been very energetic – we’ve only had two or three sessions but it’s been enjoyable.
He’s been relaxed towards us. I think he was wary we could be low on confidence after what happened in the summer.”
Leave a comment
Link Dafabet