Malik Ouzia at England training session ahead of Slovakia clash
Malik Ouzia at England training session ahead of Slovakia clash
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00:00Good morning from Blankenheim, where England are starting their preparations in earnest today for the last-16 clash with Slovakia at the weekend.
00:0723 of the squad are training behind me. No Phil Foden, of course, who's gone home for the birth of his third child.
00:14And Declan Rice and Kieran Trippi are the two players who are doing individual sessions elsewhere today to manage their workload.
00:19But Luke Shaw is behind us. He's targeting a return against Slovakia, whether from the bench or perhaps even in the starting line-up.
00:26We'll have to see closer to the time.
00:28But as I say, England found out for certain their opposition last night.
00:31We spent much of yesterday thinking it was most likely to be the Netherlands.
00:34But that surprise win from Georgia against Portugal means it will be Slovakia.
00:39Two ways of looking at it, I suppose. It's sort of inarguable.
00:42Certainly before the tournament started, you'd have said that's a much kinder draw than playing the Dutch.
00:47But I suppose England potentially going to face a similar test to the one that they've struggled against in all three group games.
00:53An unfancied side, a side who they're expected to beat.
00:56But can they live up to those expectations, both in terms of the result and the performance?
01:01It was interesting to hear Drew Bellingham talking even this morning, suggesting what a few people were suggesting yesterday,
01:06that maybe playing against the Netherlands, a bit more of a game, a team on whom the onus would be to come out and play a little bit more,
01:12might work to England's advantage, help open up the spaces, maybe make it a little bit more of an even toe-to-toe game.
01:19But it won't be the case. England off to Gelsenkirchen to play Slovakia.
01:23We're about to go in here this afternoon for Mark Gay, the Crystal Palace centre-back,
01:27who's made such a good start to this tournament, his first major tournament.
01:30So look out for updates from that later on over on Standard Sport.
01:34And we'll have all the rest of the build-up through to the weekend's game.