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Macca's bravehearts
By John Cross
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Steve McClaren
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Steve McClaren last night called on his "brave hearts"
to save England's Euro 2008 qualification hopes with victory at Wembley
today.
Under-pressure McClaren admits they cannot afford another slip-up against
Israel but backed his injury-hit team to dig England out of their crisis
with a fearless performance.
The England boss said: "When the players come to us they've got to
be big enough to wear the shirt. There's a lot of pressure and they've
got to be brave. Bravery sometimes can mean putting your head in where
others won't, but the main bravery is taking the ball when others won't,
making a run into the box when you might fail, taking a shot when you
might miss.
"That's the kind of bravery we want from our players. "The England
crowd will also play their part. They are terrific, the best in the world.
We need them.
"The players will get a big boost from the reaction of the crowd.
But also we need to perform. And if we perform at the tempo we should,
we'll keep the crowd on our side.
"But it's important to stress - and I'll say it to the players and
I'll say it to everyone - that it might not be the first 20 minutes that
we score. It might be the last minute."
Midfielder Owen Hargreaves was sent for a scan on his thigh last night
and will be given a late fitness test.
...AND GAMES TO PLAY
Today: England v Israel, Russia v Macedonia, Croatia v Estonia SEP 12
Andorra v Croatia, Macedonia v Estonia, England v Russia OCT 13 England
v Estonia OCT 17 Croatia v Israel, Macedonia v Andorra, Russia v England
NOV 17 Macedonia v Croatia, Israel v Russia, Andorra v Estonia NOV 21
England v Croatia, Israel v Macedonia, Andorra v Russia
Mirror.co.uk,
08/09/2007
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