Gareth Southgate promises England will excite against Slovakia

After the ‘dross’ against Malta, the Three
Lions have a point to prove at Wembley

Preview

In beating Malta on Friday night, England required three goals
in the dying minutes to finally snuff out the plucky challenge of
the part-timers, a victory The Sun described as “one of the worst piles of
dross ever served up by the Three Lions”. 

It took the visitors 53 minutes to find the
Maltese net and although Harry Kane’s two goals were further
confirmation of his international pedigree, there was little else
for the travelling fans to cheer. 

Instead they heckled and jeered their boys, and
Southgate admitted he wasn’t surprised. “I understand the
reaction,” he said. “I’ve played in nights like this and, if you
don’t get a couple of early goals, the atmosphere can turn. But
that’s part of wearing the shirt. You have to deal with
that.

Promising that tonight “will be completely
different”, the England manager added: “We have some exciting
players and we want to show that. We have a responsibility to get
the Wembley crowd on their feet…it is an opportunity. We have a
home game to put us within touching distance of Russia, which is
exciting. Qualifying groups come down to these type of
games.”

As for the suggestion that some of the England
squad are indifferent to international football, Southgate reacted
testily: “The notion the players aren’t proud to play is
outrageous. They’re unbelievably proud to play. Yeah, they might
not play as well as they’d like to sometimes, not convert all their
chances, but there’s no one not giving 100 per cent.”

One of England’s opponents this evening is
Vladimir Weiss, who had spells at Manchester City and Bolton and
now earns a living playing for Al Gharafa in
Qatar. 

In theory he and his teammates shouldn’t be able
to match the intensity of a team honed in the Premier League but
having played in England, Weiss is aware of the years of perennial
failure on the international stage.

“You look at England and they always win their
qualification group,” said the midfielder, who missed last year’s
1-0 home defeat to the Three Lions. “Then when it comes to the big
tournaments they never do well.”

And Weiss believes that Slovakia could throw
Pool F wide open this evening by inflicting England’s first defeat
of the qualifying stage.

“We have beaten big teams before and if we play
at our best we can beat anyone, even England,” he said. “We fight
together and that is why we are successful on the field
together.”