KIEV — Roy Hodgson will urge his captain Steven Gerrard and a quartet of England team-mates to play their normal game against Italy tomorrow despite being one yellow card away from missing a potential Euro 2012 football semi-final against Germany.
Gerrard was penalised for a foul on Denys Garmash 17 minutes from time in Tuesday’s Group D victory over Ukraine and was joined in the book by Ashley Cole.
James Milner — an ever-present to date under Hodgson — Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ashley Young have also been cautioned in the tournament and, should any be booked against the Azzurri and England prevail, they would incur a one-match suspension with Uefa’s amnesty on cards applying only after the quarter-finals.
Yet the management, while aware of the implications of further yellow cards, will impress on the players the need to put individual concerns to the back of their minds for the good of the collective and maintain their industrious approach in the daunting quarter-final. England have beaten Italy only once in 35 years — at the Tournoi de France in 1997 — yet there is conviction within Hodgson’s squad that this team boast the necessary unity and quality to prevail in Kiev.
“We are more organised than ever before and we are all fighting for each other,” said Wayne Rooney, whose goal against Ukraine ensured England won Group D. “We all want to do this together, so I think we have got a great chance. In a quarter-final anything can happen, but we feel good, we’ve prepared well and we are looking forward to it.
“It was a difficult group. France are a great side, to play Ukraine out here was always going to be difficult, and we obviously hadn’t beaten Sweden [in a competitive game] for a long time, so it was going to be a difficult group to get through. To finish top gives us a lot of confidence.
“It’s important we believe in ourselves — we have a great group of players here and we are confident. That’s the main thing. We are all working together. Italy is not going to be an easy game but we have the players, the belief and the togetherness to do a job on them.”
England have been buoyed by Young’s steady progress recovering from a bruised shin, damage inflicted by Andriy Shevchenko late in the victory in Donetsk, that should not prevent the Manchester United winger from starting tomorrow.
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All 22 players present in Krakow on Thursday took part in light training or recovery work, with Jermain Defoe having left the squad to attend his father’s funeral in London. He was expected back in Poland yesterday.
The rest of the players trained again at the Hutnik Stadium yesterday morning as preparations gather pace. Rio Ferdinand, omitted from the 23-man squad and back-up list for the finals, has been in contact with the right-back Martin Kelly to offer his support and any advice should he require it.
The 22-year-old Liverpool player’s selection for the injured Gary Cahill was deemed controversial given Ferdinand’s availability, but the former England captain has insisted he bears him no hard feelings.
