Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JACK BACK AND BACKS THE ATTACK
JACK GREALISH is set to return for Aston Villa against Spurs on Sunday – just in time for an England call.
The Villa captain has missed the last five matches with a leg injury and the West Midlands side have struggled without him.
But the 25-year-old returned to full training this week – a timely boost for England boss Gareth Southgate who today names his squad for the World Cup qualifiers later this month.
Grealish, who made his Three Lions debut last September, has spoken of his determination to establish himself in the squad. “It would mean everything,” he said recently. “I set my sights on it at the start of the season and it is certainly something I have had my eye on since I was a kid.”
Grealish also claims England could win the Euros this summer because of their strikeforce. “We have so much talent this year, especially in attack,” he said.
“You look at Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling. I’d say that the four of them could get into any team in the world and any national team.”
KEVIN DE BRUYNE reckons the Quadruple will be hard for
Manchester City to pull off due to the mental and physical demands.
City remain on course for an unprecedented haul of all four trophies, despite boss Pep Guardiola claiming it is not feasible to do it.
De Bruyne, who scored the opener (above) as City swept aside Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday to reach tomorrow’s Champions League quarter-final draw, said: “It’s very hard. I remember because people two years ago were saying we could win it.
“The amount of games and the physical and mental ability you need to have as a player or as a squad is very high.
“We try to do our best and focus game-by-game. That’s the only thing we can do.
“The next game is the FA Cup on Saturday at Everton, so if we win that we’ll go to the semi-final again and we’ll try to do that.
“We just try to maintain this high level in every competition we play and this is the standard we try to set for everybody and I think we have done really well.
“Apart from last year, in the last three or four years we didn’t make many mistakes. This year we haven’t made a lot – and that’s so important.”