England plyer-by-player assessment

Norman Fo
Saturday 22 June 1996 18:02 EDT
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After the penalty save and all the others, he's now up there with Shilton and Clemence and getting even better at judging when to move off his line. His decision to go to intercept Manjarin in the first half averted a certain goal.

1 David Seaman

2 saves

19 clearances

15 passes

2 Gary Neville

55 passes

1 tackle

0 shots

How he wanted to go forward and support the attack, and how Spain's Sergi wanted to do the same. Sergi won the battle of the adventurers and Neville only ended up in the book.

5 Tony Adams

37 passes

7 tackles

0 shots

Playing through the pain as you knew he would and inspiring with his determination more than ability. Spain's defence did well to stop his marauding upfield, but his lack of pace in his own penalty area proved dangerous.

6 Gareth

Southgate

38 passes

5 tackles

1 shot

His positional versatility was matched by his distribution and placid defensive outlook. Often covered for Adams and was always quick to make up for England's worrying loss of possession in midfield.

3 Stuart Pearce

57 passes

9 tackles

1 shot

He could see a carrot at the end of the tunnel and he knew what it meant. The bigger the carrot the greater the need for experience, but here he rarely took advantage of the space given down the left side.

17 Steve

McManaman

31 passes

3 tackles

1 shot

The true English players most praised by their foreign counterparts have been McManaman and Gascoigne. Playing on his natural right side he did well enough, but after moving inside was the star of the show.

7 David Platt

29 passes

6 tackles

1 shot

Sometimes you think he is a bit of a charlatan: a modest talent with a high profile. This was one of those days - anonymous.

8 Paul Gascoigne

49 passes

7 tackles

2 shots

Calm, oafish and unique, had one of those days when by his own standards he just played well - by the standards of the rest that was still admirable, but had no acceleration when it mattered.

11 Darren

Anderton

43 passes

4 tackles

2 shots

Maturing promisingly internationally but yesterday never seemed comfortable going forward and was unable to cut inside effectively. Nevertheless worked tirelessly without any end product.

10 Teddy

Sheringham

20 passes

1 tackle

1 shot

It's taken a long time to recognise his cunning ability to disturb defences more by the subtlety of his drawing defenders out of position than by his scoring. This was another example. He missed England's best chance.

9 Alan Shearer

16 passes

0 tackles

2 shots

If anyone was going to become the victim of hyped expectancy after that overreaction to the defeat of the forlorn Dutch, it had to be him. Almost every ball seemed a foot beyond his reach.

14 Nick Barmby

2 passes, 0 tackles

20 Steve Stone

4 passes, 1 tackle

21 Robbie Fowler

4 passes, 0 tackles

Fresh legs but rarely got near the ball in extra time. Didn't matter.

Gave a desperately needed boost and deserved a penalty.

No chance to break deadlock in 10 minutes he was given.

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