'No room for complacency'
Friday, 12 October, 2007
Joe Cole says that there is no room for complacency when England take on Estonia at Wembley on Saturday.
England v Estonia
UEFA European Championship Qualifier
3pm, Saturday 13 October 2007
Wembley Stadium
Live on BBC1
Joe Cole has warned his Three Lions team-mates there can be no room for complacency against Estonia on Saturday and no room for thinking about either Russia or the Euro 2008 Finals.
Cole is in determined mood ahead of this weekend’s big game at Wembley and he expects every player in the England squad to be nothing less than 100 per cent focused.
The team go into the match on a real high after beating both Israel and Russia 3-0 in crucial qualifying games last month, results which put our hopes of reaching the Euro 2008 finals back on track.
But Cole believes nobody should get carried away with the hype.
He said: “At the moment we're flying high but you've still got to guard against complacency.
“We're very confident at the moment but we're still going to have to go out and perform on Saturday. You've always got to go and do your job and we're looking forward to it.
“We don't dare think about the finals right now. There are so many hiccups and slip-ups in football.
“We've all been in this game long enough to know that - look at the Northern Ireland game in the World Cup qualifiers. We have to keep on our toes and keep concentrating.
“It would be lovely to get the job done this week. But first things first, we've got to beat Estonia and then hopefully Wednesday night we won't be booking our holidays for the summer but going to Switzerland instead.”
England follow Saturday’s match against Estonia with what could be a crucial away tie against Russia, who are also going all out for qualification.
But although the match in Moscow has always been labelled the key game in the group, Cole wants England to focus only on Wembley for now.
He said: “We've talked about it and we only want to focus on Estonia, we don't want to even talk about Russia or anything to do with that game.
“It's all about Estonia and Saturday. We're not doing anything about Russia, we need to get the win on Saturday and then we'll start to focus on the other game.”
