Don't give up
Thursday, 18 October, 2007
Stand-in skipper Steven Gerrard is focusing on the positives following Wednesday's result in Russia.
Russia 2-1 England
UEFA European Championship Qualifier
4pm (BST), Wednesday 17 October 2007
Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow
Live on Sky Sports
Three Lions Captain Steven Gerrard has urged his players not to give up hope on reaching the Euro 2008 finals, despite a hugely disappointing defeat in Russia.
England’s shell-shocked players are still coming to terms with the way they went down 2-1 in Moscow after producing what was at times an outstanding performance.
In fact, Steve McClaren’s men were only 20 minutes from qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals thanks to a stunning volleyed goal from Wayne Rooney in the first half.
But two goals from Russia’s Roman Pavluchenko, including a controversial penalty, earned the hosts victory in the end and mean England’s fate is no longer in their own hands.
The Three Lions now need to beat Croatia in their final match and hope Russia don’t win both their final two matches, away to Israel and away to Andorra.
It’s a tough situation but Gerrard, captain in place of injured John Terry in Moscow, is refusing to give up.
“Obviously it’s very important that we don’t give up,” he said. “We’re waiting on other people to do us favours, but as players we’ve got to stay together, focus and believe until the end.
“I can’t believe it’s out of our hands now. We’ve worked so hard over the last five or six months to put ourselves in the driving seat and make us favourites to go through.
“When we were 1-0 up, we started to believe we were nearly there and had one foot there, but football’s a cruel game, and chances, decisions and mistakes change football matches.
“It’s unthinkable to have a European Championship finals without England, but as players we’ve got to take responsibility.”
The prospect of missing out on Euro 2008 is particularly harsh on Gerrard who has been so outstanding during the tournament so far. And he could so easily have sealed victory in Moscow when he had a glorious chance in the second half – but put it wide.
"We were in control, we were 1-0 up and the game-plan was working perfectly,” added Gerrard.
“I had a great chance to make it 2-0 myself and then we had a mad five or 10 minutes when the game changed in their favour.
“The chance was one of them where I didn’t expect to have so much time and seemed to be waiting for an eternity for it to come down. I tried to get as much contact on it as possible, but it wasn’t to be. I’m disappointed with the chance.”
England’s hopes of victory truly turned on the decision of referee Luis Medina Cantalejo who punished Rooney for pulling back Zuriano, even though the challenge looked to be outside the area.
"The penalty gave them a lot of confidence, they were on the front foot and put us under a lot of pressure,” said Gerrard.
“We were hard done by with the penalty. Wayne tells us it was out of the box and it looked outside the box. The linesman didn’t give it. The referee seemed to overrule the linesman and give a penalty that wasn’t.
“Obviously the lads were very down and it gave them a lot of confidence. We were in control until then and the penalty decision turned the whole game. But even so we should have been stronger and seen the game out.”
All England can do now is stay positive, beat Croatia – and hope the gods are on their side!
Goals
Pavlyuchenko 69 (pen), 73, Rooney 29