Cahill pleased with solid defence

13 June 2014 12:32

Only Spain conceded fewer goals than England during World Cup qualification - a solid foundation Gary Cahill is hopeful of building on in Brazil.

The Three Lions shipped just four goals across their 10 qualifying matches, while Spain's record of three is somewhat skewed by the fact they played two fewer games.

Furthermore, England have not lost on any of the 13 occasions Cahill and defensive partner Phil Jagielka have played together.

Of the six competitive matches in that run, Roy Hodgson's side won five and conceded just once, with such statistics boding well heading into Saturday's Group D opener against Italy.

"It matters because you aren't going into a tournament where everyone is turning round saying we let in goals left, right and centre because that's not the case," Chelsea centre-back Cahill said.

"We have been solid, we have kept a number of clean sheets and we haven't let that many goals in, I think.

"Someone told me it was four in the qualification games, which is the joint in Europe. Does that have any affect on the games that are coming up now? I have no idea.

"I think you take each game as very different, but it's nice we have been solid leading into the games.

"So we are obviously doing something right defensively and you want to keep it going into the tournament.

"As a defender, I just wants to defend. I want to stop the opposition scoring.

"We try to do our job, give the ball to the players who can create opportunities and score goals, and hopefully they can go out and do that.

"At the minute it's been going well in that respect. No-one has a crystal ball leading into the World Cup - let's just hope that can continue."

Source: PA