Friday, 20th June, 2014
England skipper Steven Gerrard has admitted that his side are “clutching at straws” following their 2-1 loss to Uruguay at the Arena Corinthians last night.
The Three Lions, who lost their first match 2-1 against Italy on Saturday, are on the brink of elimination from the group stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1958.
England need Italy to win their next two games and have to win their own match against Costa Rica by a big margin on Tuesday to have any chance of going through to the knockout round.
However, Gerrard, who believes Italy can come out victorious from their next two fixtures, admitted that England did not want to rely on other team’s result to keep alive their World Cup hope coming into the tournament.
"Italy are a fantastic team and capable of winning both games but we're clutching at straws," the Liverpool captain told FIFA’s official site.
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"The position we're in is the position we didn't want to be in coming into the tournament, relying on other people's results. It's very difficult at the moment."
Gerrard further added that England manager Roy Hodgson may field a “completely different” team against the Costa Ricans if the match becomes an inconsequential one.
"We'll have to wait and see what happens in tomorrow's [today’s] fixture. The manager will have to wait and see what happens before deciding what he is going to do,” he added.
"If there's nothing to play for then I don't know if he'll play a completely different team. But it's a very tough moment, at this moment."
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