Barry eyes summer
Thursday, 27 March, 2008
Gareth Barry says England will take some positives as they work towards this summer's friendlies.
International Friendly
8pm, Wednesday 26 March 2008
Stade de France, Paris
Live on Sky Sports
Gareth Barry believes England can take some positives from last night's 1-0 defeat in France and revealed Manager Fabio Capello was encouraged by his side's performance.
The Three Lions matched their illustrious hosts for long periods and, as Barry pointed out, are still working on new ideas and new formations in the build-up to the start of a World Cup qualifying campaign in September.
"Defeats are always hard to take," said the Aston Villa midfielder. "But overall, especially from the first half performance, there was a lot to take from the game and the manager said afterwards he was disappointed with the defeat but felt we had taken the next step.
"He didn't say a lot but he made a quick point after the game that he was reasonably happy. He said we had moved to the next step but he only had two days again to work with the team.
"We will look forward to the summer when we have two more games and a bit more time to work together."
Those matches are against the United States at Wembley on 28 May and in Trinidad & Tobago on 1 June, and the squad should spend the best part of a week together.
That should help with team morale and team tactics - and Barry believes there are plenty of building blocks in place already.
"In the first half against France we were compact and stopped them playing but it fizzled out for us after that which is slightly disappointing. They had too much of the ball in the second half but it is a friendly and subs have to be made.
"In terms of confidence, I don't think it will be affected. France are a great team, especially playing away from home, so I don't think the confidence will be affected too much. We will look forward to meeting up in the summer."
France: 23 Gregory Coupet, 3 Eric Abidal, 5 William Gallas, 5 Claude Makelele, 7 Florent Malouda, 8 Jeremy Toulalan, Francois Clerc, Lilian Thuram (c), 20 David Trezeguet (10 Sidney Govou 64), 22 Franck Ribery, 39 Nicolas Anelka (9 Djibril Cisse 80)
Subs not used: 1 Mickael Landreau, 4 Philippe Mexes, 17 Sebastien Squillaci, 18 Alou Diarra, 21 Mathieu Flamini, 27 Patrice Evra
England: 1 David James, 2 Wes Brown (13 Glen Johnson 63), 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Owen Hargreaves, 5 Rio Ferdinand (c), 6 John Terry (14 Joleon Lescott 46), 7 David Beckham (16 David Bentley 63), 8 Gareth Barry, 9 Wayne Rooney (18 Michael Owen 46), 10 Steven Gerrard (19 Peter Crouch 46), 11 Joe Cole (17 Stewart Downing 46)
Subs not used: 12 Paul Robinson, 15 Wayne Bridge, 20 Theo Walcott, 21 Robert Green
Match Officials
Referee: Florian Meyer (German)
Assistants: Sonke Glindmann and Mark Borsch (Both German)