BARNES: I STILL BACK OUR BOYS
ENGLAND’S young stars won’t choke as they aim to reach the knockout stages of the Euros, says John Barnes. The Three Lions edged past Croatia with a 1-0 win in their opening fixture of Euro 2020 after a cool second-half finish from Raheem Sterling.
But they followed that up with an underwhelming 0-0 draw against Scotland on Friday night at a rain-soakedwembley.
Gareth Southgate’s side struggled to break down the Tartan Army and couldn’t make their chances count.
Manchester City star John Stones had the best opportunity of the match when his first-half header crashed into the woodwork.
A draw against Czech Republic should ensure
England progress out of
Group D, although far tougher tests will await in the knockout stages.
Barnes, however, insists expectations shouldn’t weigh down Southgate’s young England squad.
“England will be able to handle the pressure and expectation as Euro 2020 progresses,” said Barnes (below), who was capped 79 times for England.
“Of course, once you get all the way to a semi-final, it’s not just about pressure, it’s about playing teams who are equally as good as you, if not better.
“If England can maximise their potential, and another side underperforms, England will beat them.
“However, if we play at our very best and, for example, Belgium did too, they’d beat us as they’ve done prior.
“In those circumstances, if
England lose it’s not because they couldn’t handle the pressure, it’s simple because they faced a better side.”
Barnes was a member of England’s talented Euro 88 squad which also included Gary Lineker, Bryan Robson and Chriswaddle in the ranks.
But they lost all three group games. However, Barnes was also in Bobby Robson’s Italia 90World Cup squad two years later as England famously reached the semi-final before losing on penalties to West Germany. He said: “This whole idea that if you lose you haven’t handled the pressure is crazy.”
“If you get to a semi-final and perform as well as you can but still lose, you can’t ask any more of a team.
“For example, in 1990 when
England lost towest Germany in the semi-final.that was the best game we played and we could have won, but we lost.
“We were fortunate against Belgium and Cameroon but because we won those games, people forget that.
“All you can ask of players is that they play as well as they can and then, hopefully, that’s good enough for them to win.
“You can’t ask any more than that of them.”