Gary Cahill believes England will travel to next summer’s European Championship finals spurred on by “unfinished business”, with the experience of suffering past World Cup traumas improving their chances of success in France.
Roy Hodgson’s side are unbeaten since being knocked out of the World Cup in Brazil a year ago, and boast a pristine record to date in Group E of Euro 2016 qualifying. Victory against San Marino when their campaign resumes in the autumn should in effect secure a place at the tournament, where the national side will hope to make a better impression.
Despite having gone through an entire season unbeaten for the first time since 1990-91, an achievement secured with the 3-2 win against Slovenia on Sunday, Cahill admitted the failure to win a game in Brazil still plays on his mind.
“When you suffer a disappointment in the Premier League, another game comes around in two or three days or, at most, a week,” he said. “If you have a disappointing tournament then you have to wait two years [to put it right]. That’s a long time, but we keep working hard, keep moving in the right direction and gaining experience all the time; that’s all you can do.
“We don’t talk too much about the future, but the team are moving in the right direction. Everyone is gaining more experience, the younger players in the Premier League and, come next summer, they’ll have another year under their belt and more England caps. Experience is key going into the tournament and there is a lot of unfinished business from last summer. It’s something personally I cant wait to come around and put right. I’m sure everyone feels the same way.”
England’s qualification group is hardly onerous. But having already visited Scotland and Italy in high-profile friendlies, the side will face France and Germany, then potentially Holland and Spain next season as they gear up for Euro 2016. That will provide a proper test of progress, though the squad are taking heart from their 11-match unbeaten run.
“It’s been fantastic and the year we’ve had shouldn’t be overlooked,” added Cahill. “It’s a great achievement, something we are very proud of and something we spoke about before this game. When we went 1-0 down against Slovenia it wasn’t ideal, but we responded in the right way. We didn’t want to waste all our hard work.”
