Theo Walcott: England won’t play for a draw against Ukraine

 
James Olley18 June 2012

Theo Walcott today insisted England will target nothing less than a victory against Ukraine despite only needing a point to book their place in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals.

Group D concludes tomorrow night with Roy Hodgson’s side requiring a better result than the one France achieve against Sweden to have a chance of finishing top and avoid a potential last-eight encounter with Spain.

Ukraine have to win to progress but England require only a draw thanks to Friday’s 3-2 win over Sweden in Kiev.

Walcott played a pivotal part in rescuing the match after coming on as a substitute with England trailing 2-1. He scored the equaliser before assisting Danny Welbeck’s winner and the 23-year-old believes they have no option but to go on the attack again.

“The situation is tricky — it is against the hosts which is always going to be a tough game,” Walcott told Standard Sport. “We will go out there trying to win. Everyone was saying against France that the defending was brilliant but the attacking wasn’t great and

people will be saying the defence wasn’t great against Sweden but I would say we were a bit unlucky.

“Hopefully the best of both will come together against Ukraine. We are going to be at our best to beat them because they will be a tough cookie to break, trust me.”

UEFA requested that both teams alter the customary pre-match training session in the stadium after a huge thunderstorm in Donetsk battered the playing surface and forced a near hour-long delay in France’s match against Ukraine.

England instead trained in Krakow this morning before making the two-hour flight to Ukraine with Walcott’s fitness an ongoing concern, although he is expected to involved tomorrow.

The Arsenal man travelled to England’s training ground ahead of his team-mates this morning.

Speaking after yesterday’s session, Hodgson said: “Unfortunately he had a slight setback in training so that’s the major concern with him. He felt the hamstring that kept him out for so long at the end of last season and we were slightly concerned about when he came to us but we have been lucky that nothing has occurred with that.

“But in the little training session we had, we had to take the precaution of taking him from the field because he felt a slight tightness there. Whether or not he is a real contender for a starting position depends on what the medical people can tell me and how much guarantee they can give me that he will be okay.”

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