Norway vs England

25May 2012

bwin

England travel to Norway for their first warm up game for the 2012 European Championships. The early reports are that the new manager Roy Hodgson has been mixing well with his players and getting his messages across. He will need to because with only two games and a few short weeks in which to work with the players before their opening group game against France then he will have his work cut out.

What does bode well for England though is that many of the players in the squad have had hugely successful confidence boosting seasons with their clubs. Players like Lampard, Terry, Cole and Cahill have just had European Cup success by winning the Champions League to follow on from their FA Cup success. Then there are players like Lescott, Hart, Barry and Milner at Manchester City that have just won the title and even Steven Gerrard and Andy Carroll at Liverpool have tasted cup success.

The question is whether these players can play together to make an effective unit and there will be no Wayne Rooney for the opening two group games because of suspension. So it will be very interesting to see how England play against Norway and if we see an improved performance in the team. One thing is for sure though and this is that new manager Roy Hodgson has the perfect excuse for failure in that he has had very little time to work with the players.