Euro 2016: England already face a must-win match against Wales, but they can stop Gareth Bale

Anything else means Wales will be huge favourites to qualify and England’s fate lies potentially out of their hands

Gareth Bale celebrates after opening the scoring for Wales against Slovakia (AP)

There’s no doubt about it, England have to beat Wales. Anything else means Wales will be huge favourites to qualify and England’s fate lies potentially out of their hands.

I actually think we played well against Russia. We retained possession better than I’ve seen us do for a while. It’s a long tournament so the more you can do that, the fitter you’ll be and the more it will benefit you as the tournament goes on. We lacked that real bit of quality in the final third but overall it was a decent performance and lots of positives to take.

I think the criticism of Harry Kane has been really harsh. Alright, he didn’t have one of his better games but he was missing the support. It’s always difficult when a team puts a load of players behind the ball, which is exactly what Russia did. We found it hard to break them down but that’s not all down to Kane.

We need someone else up top with him and Daniel Sturridge is the man for me. I’ve always liked him a lot and when the ball is in and around the box he can take people on and his pace will frighten the life out of defenders. He is a proper little trickster. I think Adam Lallana or Sterling could be the ones to make way if Roy decides to go with two up top. Even if it’s not Sturridge, we need that second striker to support Kane and we’ve got plenty of them in the squad to choose from.

The key to stopping Wales is to stop Gareth Bale and the way to do that is simple – retain possession exactly like we did against the Russians. If Wales don’t have the ball that means Bale won’t have the ball and if Bale doesn’t have the ball then he can’t hurt you and cause damage. There’s no point trying to put two players on him as that will just free up space for others. Keep the ball and make Wales do the work.

It’s been a decent tournament so far and it will only get more exciting going into the next round of games. So far Spain are my pick of the bunch. They were all over the Czech’s and it could’ve and should’ve been so much more than 1-0. Everyone has been raving about the Italians but they were playing against a Belgian side who just left themselves wide open and far too easy to beat.

My inch defining moment of the week is the Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev getting his fingertips to Wayne Rooney’s shot and pushing it onto the crossbar. I know it was only a few minutes before we scored but I think Rooney would’ve remained on the pitch and we would go and get another one or two to win comfortably.

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