England Euro16 & Friendlies

So the English domestic football season is over(well nearly)and we move on to a summer of international football which should last long enough to bring us around full circle and straight back into pre season.

First of all here is Roy's squad for the minimum 6games this summer

Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster, Joe Hart, Tom Heaton
Defenders: Ryan Bertrand, Gary Cahill, Nathaniel Clyne, Danny Rose, Chris Smalling, John Stones, Kyle Walker
Midfielders: Dele Alli, Ross Barkley, Fabian Delph, Eric Dier, Danny Drinkwater, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, James Milner, Raheem Sterling, Andros Townsend, Jack Wilshere
Forwards: Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge, Jamie Vardy


26man squad named for the friendlies, this number will be cut to 23 by 31st May for the Euro's so basically they have the Turkey and Australia games to book themselves a spot in France.
No massive surprises although Henderson and Wilshere will have to prove they are over any injury problems and Townsend will need to show better form than he has this season..

So what lies in wait for England this summer. Well to start off with we have 3 home friendlies dotted around the country, this will give Roy a chance to see all his squad in action with no doubt different starting line ups and formations to work out what Plan A,B and C are. So we'll start by looking at those fixtures

First up England v Turkey at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday 22nd May (17:15ko)

Turks to watch - Burak Yilmaz, 42caps for Turkey with an impressive return of 19 goals. Yilmaz is a striker who has now decided to earn a bucket load of cash by moving to Chinese club Beijing Guoan. He recently joined than from Galatasaray for €8million

Our Second game is England v Australia at the Stadium of Light on Friday 27th May (19:45ko)

Aussies to watch- Mile Jedinak a poor mans Felieni in my eyes although his record says he is serving his country well. 62 Caps and 12 goals he also happens to be captain these days. Plays his club football for this years FA cup finalists Crystal Palace. Well known fact about Jedinak is he has a fear of Alan,Alan Lees elbows, if he gets writhing 5yards of him he goes down in a heap(Town fans will get that one)
Tim Cahill - yes he's still playing at the grand old age of 36. 89 Caps for the Aussies with a stunning return of 47 goals. Cahill has travelled the world to fill his passport and has played in far flung places such as England,USA and now China where he plays for Hangzhou Greentown.


And our final game and our send off to the Euro finals is England v Portugal at Wembley on Thursday 2nd June

Players to watch
Who else but Ronaldo, probably the best player in Europe, scores goals for fun at Real Madrid and isn't too shabby at international level with 56goals for Portugal. Hopefully he'll be having a nice rest after playing in the Champions League final


Ok that's the friendlies out of the way.


EURO2016

The nice people of UEFA have drawn us out in GROUP B alongside the following nations

England v Russia at the Stade Veledrome in Marseille, Saturday 11th June

Ground Capacity-67,394
Our last visit- 15/6/1998 World Cup group match
England 2 v 0 Tunisia
Shearer
Scholes
Crowd 54,587

Players to watch out for-Artyom Dzyuba who scored 8 goals in the qualifiers and has a record of 16apps and 8 international goals in total, he plays his club football at Zenit St Petersburg
Record in Euro Finals-qualified in 96,04,08 and 12. Russia best performance was a semi final defeat in 08


England v Wales at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens, Thursday 16th June

Ground Capacity-38,223 (you can fit the whole Towns population inside this ground
Our last visit- 26/6/1998 World Cup group match
England 2 v 0 Colombia
Anderton
Beckham
Crowd 38,100

Players to watch out for- Only one place to start, Gareth Bale...stop Gareth Bale and we should stop Wales having any chance of winning this. The only player in the Welsh squad who would get into the England team in my opinion. Bale top scored in the group qualifiers scoring 7 of the 11 goals Wales managed. Other notable player to watch from A Town point of view is Emyr Huws who spent last season on loan to the Terriers from Wigan
Record in Euro Finals- Debut Finals


England v Slovakia at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in St Etienne, Monday 21st June

Ground Capacity-41,965
Our last visit- 30/6/1998 World Cup Round of 16
England 2 v 2 Argentina (Argentina won 4-3 on Pens)
Shearer
Owen
Crowd 30,600

Players to watch out for- Marek Hamsik, top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals and vice captain. With 85 games for Slovakia he has 17 goals in total and is the 3rd highest scorer for his country in all time. Players club football for Napoli
Slovakia are captained by Liverpools Martin Skrtel
Record in Euro Finals-debut