England at Euro 2016: Daniel Sturridge determined to avoid being part of a new big-night flop

Striker driven by memory of England’s poor start at last World Cup as he bids to help team get off to a flyer.
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Simon Johnson8 June 2016

There are many hurdles to overcome on the way to winning a major tournament but England’s hopes have been let down by their habit of falling at the first.

As coach Roy Hodgson prepares his side for Russia in Marseille on Saturday, he will be aware of the tendency for the players to fluff their lines on opening night.

England have played in eight European Championships so far and have never started with a victory.

The record is not that much better when the 14 appearances at the World Cup are taken into consideration. The national team have a measly five victories to show for their efforts, the last of which was against Paraguay a decade ago.

Obviously, failing to win the first game of a competition does not end a team’s hopes there and then. After all, England won the World Cup in 1966 having begun with an unconvincing 0-0 draw against Uruguay.

However, the inability to secure a victory does put the side under pressure from the outset and that is an outcome Hodgson’s men could do without, especially with memories of the disastrous 2014 World Cup still fresh in everyone’s mind.

England knew they were out of the tournament after just two matches, having followed up a 2-1 defeat by Italy with another 2-1 reverse, against Uruguay. Granted, half the current squad were not involved back then but Daniel Sturridge is one player who was left with some scars from the experience.

The Liverpool forward went from the high of scoring on his World Cup debut against Italy only to walk out of the stadium in Manaus that night suffering from the devastating low a loss can bring. Less than a week later, he knew England were out and heading home.

It is certainly a fate he wants to avoid this time around, which is why he is so determined to beat Russia in three days’ time.

He told Standard Sport: “We want to write new history, it’s about going in there with the right mentality, training as hard as we can this week so we perform well on the first night.

“The fact we haven’t won at the Euros before and what happened in the last World Cup is the past.

“We can’t look into it too much and worry about what happened and why things went wrong. We can’t think about what the statistics or the critics say.

“We have to focus on what we can do going into the Russia game and how we can make sure we do perform to get the result we want. We want to be an exciting group of players.

“Of course what happened in the game against Italy two years ago was disappointing. It was great for myself to score in my first tournament, in the opening game. It was a beautiful feeling.

“But you want to have success as an individual and as a team. You want to be known as a winner.”

Given Uefa are allowing four third-placed teams to progress to the last 16 this year, there is a possibility that a side can lose two matches and still progress.

Yet there are clearly no guarantees and England certainly do not want to be putting themselves at risk with Wales their next opponents, followed by Slovakia. As far as Sturridge is concerned, losing any of the group fixtures is not an option. He added: “If we beat Russia it will set us up well for the Wales game but every game is important to us in the group phase.

“We want to win every game in the group if we can but if we can’t, we will look to be defensively astute to make sure we still get a result. Waiting for the first game is the worst, you have a lot of time on your hands to pass and occupy yourself. But the weather is nice, we will have meetings to help ease our minds and those sort of things.”

Given the intense competition for places, Sturridge is aware of the possibility of tasting disappointment of a different kind this time around.

A calf injury limited his time on the pitch during England’s three warm-up games to just 12 minutes, meaning he is behind Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy in the pecking order.

The former Chelsea star even has a battle with 18-year-old Marcus Rashford on his hands but he sees no reason to be negative.

“It’s a beautiful thing to have so many options,” he said. “We are driving each other on, to help improve and get the best out of each other. It’s about being here as a team and to be the best we can. We all want to play but if you’re not in the first team, it’s about coming off the bench and giving your all, trying to make an impact on the pitch.

“If you don’t come on, it’s your job to take it on the chin. When you have players not happy in the camp it doesn’t help the team.”

Victory against Russia, though, will surely put everyone in a good mood.

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