Late call-up Phil Jagielka says England's 2010 defeat to France will have no relevance when the two rivals clash in their European Championship opener next month.
Eighteen months ago, Jagielka was part of the England side which were outplayed by France in a 2-1 home defeat at Wembley, a loss which highlighted the technical gulf between the teams.
However Everton defender Jagielka, who was drafted into England's Euro 2012 squad on Monday after an injury to Gareth Barry, is confident it will be a different story when the teams meet in Donetsk on June 11.
"I'm sure their squad will be quite similar to what it was back then and ours isn't too different," Jagielka said.
"But it's going to be a slightly different atmosphere, slightly different onus on the game.
"Obviously it's a tournament game rather than the friendly, we'll need the points to top the table and go through."
Jagielka acknowledged the Group D clash was one England could not afford to lose, adding: "We'll be going out there to win the game but if we take a draw and get two good results and top the qualifying, we'll take that just as much."
Meanwhile Jagielka, who will be playing for England in a major tournament for the first time after injury ruled him out of contention for the 2010 World Cup, believes the Three Lions can benefit from lower expectation.
"I'm sure if we win a game we'll be favourites and if we lose a game we'll be a waste of space," Jagielka said. "It's a hard one to call.
"It would be a better for the squad if there was a little bit less expectation on us.
"Hopefully we can go under the radar until the latter stages of the tournament and hopefully get further than we have.
"But if we're being realistic, we haven't won anything for a number of years now and maybe that's because we don't deserve to.
"So hopefully this time round we can perform a little bit better and see where it takes us."
Jagielka, who played in England's scrappy 1-0 win over Norway at the weekend, said the squad was still adjusting to new manager Roy Hodgson's tactics.
"We've obviously not had too long with it but a 1-0 win as a defender, that's a decent start," he said.
"I'm sure we didn't play amazing but we're still getting used to the different tactics and different roles some of us will have to play but we've got to look upwards going into the tournament and hopefully we can do well with him in charge."
Source: AFP
