Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Have faith
In attacking abilities – David seaman
FORMER England goalkeeper David Seaman has said he believes the Three Lions should have faith in their attacking abilities when they play Italy in the European Championship final tomorrow, as sitting back and inviting pressure will see Gareth Southgate’s side punished.
England booked their place in the final after the extra-time victory against Denmark on Wednesday, and Seaman also thinks the Three Lions will need to perform better than they have done throughout the tournament to lift the trophy.
In an interview with bookmakers William Hill, he said: “It’s a great achievement, and it was an unbelievable night, but the work doesn’t stop there because you want to win the final when you get there and that’s what it’s all about.
I know people will talk about it being the first one since
1966, but all you’ve got to think about is winning the game.
“I’m expecting it to be very tactical to start off with on Sunday against Italy, but I hope England enforce their game on them. You can’t sit back against the Italians, or they’ll punish you.
“We’ve got to go at them with pace and especially with the two older centre-halves they’ve got, we’ve got to get at them. They are organised, and they know when to slow a game down and time waste. You don’t go 30-odd games unbeaten without being a good side.”
There’s been debate about the penalty awarded to England in extratime, which saw Raheem Sterling bundled over in the box. It’s been questioned how much contact there was, which has annoyed Seaman as he thinks England deserve the rub of the green after so many years of tough breaks.
He said: “We’ve gone a long time with bad luck, and people can say ‘you’ve had an easy route to the final,’ but we shouldn’t care. When I got to the last 16 and quarter-finals, we got Argentina and Brazil and that’s bad luck.
“The lads are creating their own history now. Euro ’96 was a long time ago now, and they’ve already been at a World Cup semi-final, so it’s coming together perfectly now and preparing us for the next World Cup.”
Southgate has tinkered slightly with his starting XI throughout the tournament for tactical and personnel reasons, but Seaman expects his former England teammate to pick an unchanged side for the Italy match.
He said: “I think this could be the first time he names an unchanged team as long as no one is injured. His team on Wednesday was his strongest team, and I know Jadon Sancho won’t be too happy about it, but Bukayo Saka’s come in and been great. He set up the first goal and he’s always positive and looking to get past players.
“I think a lot of the fans will be getting cramp, never mind the players! It’ll be a big day, but the beauty of it is that it’s at Wembley. I’m sure it’s going to be an amazing day, and if it’s anything like the semi-final I played in, and the semi-final on Wednesday then I think it’ll be great.
“I have to go 2-0 England, or it could be 1-1 and then we win on penalties for a change!”