Wenger: England's test of character

Arsene Wenger believes England must pass an immense examination of their mental strength if they are to recover from the demoralising nature of their defeat against France and progress into the last eight of the European Championship.

England have to beat Switzerland tomorrow to keep their hopes alive in Portugal and Arsenal manager Wenger said: "It will be a big test. I always thought that whoever lost the match against France would suffer a huge mental blow and that was England. And the manner of the defeat was also important.

"If they had been losing 2-0 and pulled a goal back then they would not have felt so bad. But to be leading until the last two minutes and then lose hurts even more. The disappointment would have been huge.

"But they can still get through if they recover by the time they play Switzerland. There were good signs for them against France.

"They defended well but perhaps in the second half they defended too deeply to protect their advantage. The positive they can take is that in patches they looked dangerous and they must take those positives into the game against the Swiss. They gained respect for that performance and they have to build on that. I am confident they will." Wenger is also aware of the failure of his Highbury striker Thierry Henry to make a consistent impact on the match, a performance for which he was taunted by the England fans.

But as Robert Pires pointed out in Standard Sport yesterday, there was little space for any of the strikers in the Stadium of Light.

Wenger agreed and believes Henry is still more than capable of making an impact.

He said: "England defended well but I would say it was hard for both sets of strikers.

"But the tournament has just started. He will still have a big part to play for France, I am confident of that. Both teams were set up in similar fashion, with a wide left player who tucked in. That left nobody on the left to help the front players."

Wenger then gave his early reflections on the tournament and nominated Italy as the most disappointing team to date following their tame performance in a goalless draw with Denmark.

"But you have to also remember that Italy often start slowly and get better as the tournament goes on," he said.

"They were not too impressive against Denmark but you would not be surprised if they got better in the games to come.

"What I would say, however, is that the two worst defences I have seen so far are those of Bulgaria and Russia.

"Sweden looked good when they beat Bulgaria 5-0 and they looked stronger than everyone expected. But I don't know how much that was because of Bulgaria's poor defending.

"Spain looked compact and looked capable of picking up the momentum but, again, they were up against a poor Russian defence."