There’s plenty for England to be positive about.
It’s not many times that they’ve managed to dominate their three group stage matches at a major tournament and carve out so many chances.
The problem is though, for all that dominance, they’ve put the ball in the net a mere three times and only won once.
The performance against Slovakia was arguably the most frustrating of the lot. Qualification was pretty much assured with the victory over Wales a matter of days earlier, but having squandered a host of chances in Saint-Etienne, the draw sees Roy Hodgson’s men qualify in second place, overtaken by the Welsh following their 3-0 victory over Russia.
In total, Roy Hodgson’s men had 29 shots at the Slovakian goal. The third highest amount of shots in a major tournament match since 1966, as pointed out by the tweet below.
Most shots by England in a Euros/World Cup finals match 1966-2016:
40 vs W Germany 1966
34 vs Mexico 1966
29 vs Slovakia 2016— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) June 20, 2016
Needless to say, England need to start making some of their chances count if they are to go much further in the tournament.
Again, if you’re looking for positives, the two occasions they attempted more shots on goal were in 1966. We all know what happened then.
As a result of the second place finish, England will now face the runners up in Group F – a group containing Hungary, Iceland, Austria and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. The Real Madrid man has been pretty wasteful himself so far this tournament, but you suspect that won’t last much longer.
