On the back of finishing top of their group, England will next face Germany in a mouth-watering round-of-16 clash in Euro 2020.
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With England bracing themselves for a pulsating last-16 clash in Euro 2020 against Germany, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has assured that England are not underestimating their opponents. Joachim Low’s side started the tournament with a 0-1 defeat to France before beating Portugal convincingly in their next game. But they scored a late equaliser against Hungary to just about reach the round-of-16 in a tense finish to the Group F matches. England, on the other hand, won two and drew the other game to top their group.
“We as a group are definitely not underestimating the challenge that we’ve got and the quality that they have, it’s like any game we go into we do our due diligence and work out how we can counteract the way that they play,” Calvert-Lewin was quoted by skysports.com. “They always tend to play a certain way, they’re well-oiled and they play a certain system more often than not.
“I suppose there’s big history with England and Germany playing against each other so maybe it’s that which people think [about], but we’re not too concerned about that, it’s another game of football which we are going to try and win.”
The last competitive meeting between these two was when Germany beat England 4-1 in the round of 16 at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He said, “That [the 2010 World Cup defeat] is more in my memory, but for me it’s perhaps not as personal [as it would be for someone older]. For me I’m just looking forward to the test and we can try and make history.”
England are yet to concede a goal at Euro 2020 so far but they have scored only themselves in the tournament through Raheem Sterling, with many criticising England’s pedestrian passing performances. “I think from a creative perspective there is a lot more to come from us,” he added.
“First and foremost, it’s tournament football and it’s important that you don’t concede goals because more often than not the margins are quite small. Keeping a clean sheet is very important, with two 1-0s you still get the three points but we’d like to be a bit more creative and create more opportunities. It’s important just to build on what we’ve been doing and it’s important that we stick to our identity and play our game and not cater for anything else.”
Calvert-Lewin, who has scored four goals in 10 games for the senior side, has struggled for game time, with captain Harry Kane being the preferred choice for the starting role. “I’m not going to talk about who is and isn’t going to play [against Germany], for me it’s about being ready when I’m needed and staying sharp in training if I’m called upon,” he added. “Harry is the captain, at the moment he is the man that is leading the line and I’ll support him 100 per cent and make sure I’m ready when needed.
“I think coming into the tournament I was aware of the role that I was going to play and I prepared myself for that and all I can do is to play that role to the best of my ability. I’m a player like anyone else who wants to play and get minutes and affect games and sometimes when you can’t do that it does get frustrating, but I think that’s only human.”
