By CHRIS KAMARA
Last Updated: 12th June 2012
ENGLAND’S draw with France may have shocked those who said we would flop at Euro 2012.
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But it came as no surprise to me as the Three Lions tamed the likes of Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery — and could even have taken all three points.
We've all said that in the short period of time Roy Hodgson has had to work with the players, he’s concentrated on making us difficult to beat.
And that’s exactly what we were.
Time after time the French knocked the ball around trying to find a way through — but our defence stood firm.
It was almost inevitable that the one occasion our backline was breached, it was from an unbelievable effort from outside the box.
To claim a point against a team as fancied as Laurent Blanc’s side is a massive boost for confidence.
If we had lost, the critics would be saying “I told you so”.
But now, when you look at some of the results the tournament has thrown up already such as Holland losing to Denmark, it’s a case of “maybe we’re not as bad as we thought we were”.
There wasn’t a player in an England shirt that let their manager down.
Some may say Joe Hart should have done better with the goal as Samir Nasri’s shot beat him at his near post but I think that’s harsh.
He’ll be beating himself up about it but he made an excellent save moments before to deny Alou Diarra a certain goal.
Ashley Cole was outstanding while John Terry and goal-scorer Joleon Lescott never allowed themselves to be dragged out of position.
It was refreshing to see Roy opt for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He outfoxed many pundits with that decision — including myself!
He’ll know that there were a few times when he could have stood still instead of moving into space. But for his first big game in a major competition, he wasn’t fazed by it.
Our best period was just after half-time when the players were passing the ball confidently and moving superbly.
It would have been nice if we could have done it for a bit longer but overall it shows we are playing better with every game under Roy.
We’re still sitting far too deep and we have to learn to keep the ball better.
But there’s no reason why we can’t improve on that when we face Sweden on Friday.
The Swedes have a star player in Zlatan Ibrahimovic but the rest of their team lacks the quality that France can boast.
If I was Roy, I wouldn’t be too worried about them. We’ll have more of the ball and if we keep our discipline at the back, we should emerge with the win.
And that should shut the doom and gloom merchants up for good.
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