Fabio Capello on Friday warned England that their impressive win in Croatia last month will count for nothing if they fail to beat Kazakhstan's mystery men at Wembley on Saturday. England go into their third World Cup qualifier under the Italian looking to build on the momentum generated by the stunning 4-1 victory in Zagreb.
But they will have to do without two members of the team that secured that win, captain John Terry, who was ruled out on Friday with a back injury, and his Chelsea team-mate Joe Cole. "I was very happy with the performance against Croatia but it is only three points," Capello said. "We have to win tomorrow."
The Italian issued an appeal to the England fans who have booed their own players on their last three Wembley outings to show patience if the Kazakhs, about whom Capello admits he knows little, prove difficult to break down.
"It is very important for the group, for the spirit and the confidence in the team that we win," he said. "I think tomorrow we will play with more confidence and I hope the crowd will help us. "I know the crowd hope we will win and play a nice game. There is a big expectation but it is normal for the England team.
"It is possible we will not score very early and we have to be patient. I remember the old Wembley atmosphere and that helped the England players a lot. "I spoke with the players. We have to play with confidence, better than the last game we played here. "I said a lot of times we have a good team with very important players. It is important we won against Croatia and now we are better than when we last played at Wembley.
"We are more confident, more compact, more of a team than we were before. I'm sure we will play well against Kazakhstan." Fellow centreback Rio Ferdinand will stand in for Terry as captain with Joleon Lescott the favourite to partner the Manchester United man at the heart of the defence."
Comments
Comments are closed.