England News

• Nickname:Three Lions
• Founded: 1872
• Manager:Roy Hodgson

• Ground:Wembley Stadium
• Capacity:90,000

No excuses warns Terry

08 Sep 2007 - 09:37:08

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Captain John Terry has warned that there will be no excuses if England fail to beat Israel at Wembley to remain on course to qualify for the 2008 European Championships.

Terry was speaking before the first half of a crucial Wembley double-header, with Russia the visitors on Wednesday evening.

The Chelsea skipper said: "There is no place to hide and there can be no excuses if we fail to win. Anything less than three points will be a disaster for us.

"The expectations are high. We haven't maintained the standards we expect in our group campaign of late. We all realise that as a group of players.

"We are desperate to make it happen and climb up the table. As international players, we have to deal with the expectation. We have to deal with that kind of pressure.

"But if we don't get an early goal it is up to myself not to get frustrated and make sure the other lads don't get frustrated in those circumstances.

"It is vital that we don't lose the concentration factor and just go for the jugular because we can always be caught on the counter-attack.

"That has got to be my and Rio Ferdinand's role, to keep our shape a little bit and not force things.

"We are desperate to get goals, but we have to be concentrate as a team defensively. If we can build on that after the first 15 minutes, we have players going forward who can cause a lot of damage.

"We are desperate to get out there and pick up the three points."