Wayne Rooney admits England will have to improve on their lacklustre performance against Norway if they are to avoid a dispiriting start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in Switzerland.
Rooney marked his first game as England’s permanent captain with the winning goal as he drove home a 68th minute penalty to seal a 1-0 victory over Norway on Wednesday’.
“Yeah, we have to [step it up],” said Rooney. “We know we have to be better than we were tonight [Wednesday] to get a good result against a good team like Switzerland.”
With Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard now retired after the World Cup, Rooney is England’s most senior player and he believes it was essential that Norway were beaten to ensure that the young and impressionable squad’s already fragile morale wasn’t dented any further.
“It was a big game for us coming back after such a disappointment at the World Cup. It was important to get the victory. We are happy with the win but we know we can play better. We have to move on.”
Germany call up speedy Sam
Germany have called up Schalke 04 forward Sidney Sam to add more punch to their attack against Scotland on Sunday after a string of absences and lack of firepower contributed to a 4-2 defeat by Argentina on Wednesday.
With the World Cup winners looking far from their polished best and missing several key players, coach Joachim Loew wants more goal threat for his team’s first Euro 2016 qualifier in Dortmund.
“You could see that a large number of our players only had a short preparation this season,” said Loew. “We only had two days together as a team and we were missing a lot of players who cannot be replaced that easily.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2014.
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