England captain Wayne Rooney believes his young England side are ready to take on Europe’s best in the coming weeks after their 1-0 victory over Portugal.
Defender Chris Smalling popped up on 86 minutes to head home the only goal of the game at Wembley Stadium, with the visitors reduced to ten men before half time when Bruno Alves saw a straight red card.
The win means England head to their Euro 2016 base in Chantilly on Monday after three straight victories, having also beaten both Turkey and Australia 2-1 last month.
England 1-0 Portugal
International Friendly
Thursday 2 June 2016
Wembley Stadium connected by EE
By Jack Miller
England play Russia in their opening Group B game in just nine days time, and Rooney is now relishing the thought of leading a winning side that has the potential to improve even further.
“I think we’re ready,” he said. “We know in these games leading up to the tournament there have been a lot of changes to the team and we haven’t been at our best.
“But we’ve won all three games which is really important as a young team. We know that we have to improve though as in tournament football you need to be better to win games.
“We won the game but it was always going to be difficult as soon as Portugal went down to ten men. They made things very difficult for us, but that can happen in football.
“We kept going and got the win which was really important for us, and I thought we were the better team throughout – even when it was 11 versus 11.
“We need to be playing better, we know that, but I think it’s a really good sign when you’re winning the games and not playing quite as well as you can.”
England manager Roy Hodgson selected an aggressive line-up for their 50th game at the new Wembley Stadium, with Rooney starting alongside strikers Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy for the first time.
And while none of the trio managed to find the net, Kane and Rooney both saw good efforts saved by Portugal keeper Rui Patricio, and the skipper insists the chemistry between the three is growing all the time.
He said: “We didn’t have many chances between us, so it’s obviously something we are working on and the manager is working on.
“Portugal made life very difficult, and there are 23 players in the squad anyway so it is more about all of us rather than just three.”
