ATTACK AND MAKE A MATCH OF IT

top, but that’s tournament football. You will play against some fantastic teams and we will have to pay close attention to our potential opponents.

“When you are in these tournaments, you want to maximise everything and come through first in the group, but we have remained positive in our performances – and in the latter stages we’ll stay positive.”

Bertrand (right) believes England can still be a danger and aren’t lagging behind other fancied teams. “Not everyone has caught fire yet,” he added.

“No one has really been full throttle and I would definitely put England in there with the teams that have tried to win their games.

“It’s only been because we have come up against resilient opponents that we haven’t been able to capitalise and get the results.” England’s defence was meant to be the weak link before the tournament started, but Bertrand believes the loss of two goals in three games proves it is better than the critics think. He added: “Seriously, I think we have had only three or four shots on target against us in three games, so, defensively, we have been really compact and a good unit.

“We kept a clean sheet against Slovakia, but it’s never nice to just sit on the draw – we wanted maximum points.”

Hodgson has been hammered for making six changes against Slovakia, but Bertrand says it was the right course of action.