Lamps: We'll go for a win

14 April 2012

Frank Lampard has insisted England will not run the risk of making an early exit from Euro 2004 by attempting to settle for a draw in tonight's final group clash with Croatia in Lisbon.

England need only a draw to reach the last eight - and a likely meeting with host nation Portugal if they finish behind France.

But Lampard knows that to adopt that mentality would be a dangerous policy against the technically gifted Croatians who held the French to a 2-2 draw.

The Chelsea midfielder told the Press Association: "We are aware that we only need a draw to qualify - but we will adopt the mentality of trying to win the game.

"That's the way that we generally play anyway and it would be wrong to be too cautious and play for the draw.

"We'll be going out with the intention of winning - and if we end up drawing then all well and good."

Lampard also has to contend - along with Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and David James - with the prospect of missing the quarter-finals if he gets a second yellow card of the tournament.

But he vowed not to adopt a softly-softly approach and insists making sure England are still in the competition is the priority.

Lampard said: "I'll definitely have the yellow card in my mind. You have to be good enough or clever enough to keep your aggression in the way you play but without doing anything silly.

"You can't afford to hold back. England need to go through to the next round and, if you've got to make a tackle, then you've got to go for it."

Central defender Sol Campbell warned: "We were buoyant after beating Switzerland but we haven't finished the job yet. We still need something against Croatia to make sure we go through."

In other news, Owen Hargreaves has been passed fit to take his place on the substitutes' bench for tonight's game after being doubtful with a stomach upset.

The Bayern Munich midfielder had not eaten for 48 hours, and Eriksson conceded he was "almost for certain" unlikely to figure in his plans.

But Hargreaves' condition has improved overnight - and, especially with Nicky Butt still missing, Eriksson was keen to have him as an alternative on the bench tonight.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in