Henderson’s on a revenge mission

JORDAN HENDERSON has revealed the feeling of emptiness in England’s dressing room after Croatia shattered their World Cup dream — and stated his ambition to avenge that defeat. The UEFA Nations League shootout with Croatia tomorrow is England’s 17th and final game of 2018 but, for all the progress made under Gareth Southgate, the semi-final defeat in Moscow casts a shadow. Now Henderson is desperate to win at Wembley, as he believes reaching next summer’s final stages of the Nations League would be evidence that England are a team with momentum. Henderson, who came through his run-out against the USA on Thursday without any reaction to the hamstring injury he suffered last month, said: ‘We will always have that defeat inside us — it was the World Cup semi-final. But since then we have come so far and we need to produce again on Sunday. ‘Then, after the game, hopefully we can see a lot of positive things and good things. It would get us to a semi-final again and that’s what our focus is on. But it will be tough because Croatia are a fantastic team.’ It was tough in Rijeka last month when England drew 0-0 in an empty stadium but, given what Croatia did to Spain on Thursday, they will need to step it up again. The last three performances, however, have been encouraging and the comfortable manner in which England brushed aside the USA illustrated that Southgate’s options to change games are growing. ‘We have reacted really well after the World Cup,’ said Henderson (below). ‘It would have been easy to think, “Yeah, we had a decent time”, and go through the motions. But the first camp when we were back in September, we knew we had a lot to improve on if we want to go further in tournaments. ‘We want to get to finals and win competitions. We had a decent World Cup but we could have done better, so that has spurred us on. Since then we have been outstanding, especially against Spain (in October). Croatia is a huge opportunity for us.’ It is also a chance to end the international year on a high. It started with a win in Holland and England went on to bury some hoodoos, not least the inability to succeed in a penalty shootout. ‘There is a lot of things you can say about the year,’ said Henderson. ‘But our focus is to win; to get to the semi-finals.’ Meanwhile, Jadon Sancho may be denied the opportunity to build on his dazzling first appearance at Wembley by a minor foot issue. The 18-year-old winger left Wembley walking gingerly and complaining of pain. While it is is unlikely the Borussia Dortmund wonderkid would have started against Croatia, he could have been a potent weapon from the bench. He will be assessed today before any decision is made on whether he can be included in the squad. Liverpool defender Joe Gomez, who was not even on the bench against the USA, will also be assessed after treatment on his left achilles tendon.