DAMNING STATS SHOW ENGLAND JUST FELL APART

ENGLAND’S young and vibrant team impressed me for long parts of the draw with russia, but it was a shame that they let the lead slip so late on.

I have seen nearly every game at the euros so far and there has been a striking similarity in many of the encounters. Almost every match has been in the balance going into the final 15 minutes and different questions have been posed to each team.

For France and Spain, they were chasing winning goals late. France achieved this with Dimitri Payet’s stunning left-foot and Spain found a goal with sheer persistence.

england’s challenge was different. eric Dier (right) hit a free-kick to give roy Hodgson’s side the lead in the 73rd minute and I was interested to see how england would cope with the task of closing the game out. As a player, I don’t enjoy defending one goal leads. If the team isn’t composed, it can be nervy and one stroke of misfortune or a refereeing decision can impact the result. I was looking at the statistics to see how england managed the challenge and the numbers show why they struggled. They had 58.5 per cent of the ball in the first half — but after taking their lead, it seemed they slowly lost their authority. The percentage breakdown demonstrates this clearly. After the goal, between the 76th and 80th minutes, england kept 69.8 per cent possession. But this dropped to 55.8 per cent in the 81st to 85th minutes before collapsing to 30.4 per cent from the 85th minute. england conceded in the 92nd minute. Compare this to the Germans. They also led Ukraine 1-0 in the final stages but had 69.7 per cent of the ball between the 81st-85th minutes and still had 51.4 per cent between the 85th minute and the final whistle.