Scholes' faith in England

PAUL SCHOLES

PAUL Scholes has plenty of faith in England to truly come good in their massive European Championship Group 'B' crunch fixture against Wales in Lens tomorrow.

There was disappointment for Roy Hodgson's men at the end of their opening fixture against Russia on Saturday, as Vasili Berezutski's stoppage-time header denied England a precious victory boost as the game ended 1-1.

Now attention is firmly focused on Chris Coleman's side, who got their first finals tournament campaign in more than 50 years off to a flying start with a 2-1 win against Slovakia.

Former Manchester United midfield star Scholes, who featured in both the 2000 and 2004 Euro finals for his country, told the Chronicle: "I think England should be confident going into the Wales game now.

"To be honest I thought that was as well as I've seen England play at a major tournament in quite some time.

"The only problem was that they didn't kill the game off.

"Maybe that's a worry, but I wouldn't worry too much going into tomorrow's game.

"They can't go into it just thinking they're going to win it, though.

"England will be favourites, and though Wales have got some great players like Gareth Bale of course, we should have too much."

In last night's action, Iceland made a memorable debut at a major football tournament as they held Portugal to a 1-1 draw in Group 'F'.

Nani put Portugal in front, only for Birkir Bjarnason to equalise just after half-time.

Elsewhere in Group 'F', goals from Adam Szalai and Zoltan Stiber earned Hungary a shock 2-0 victory over Austria.

Today's fixtures -

Group 'A': Romania v Switzerland (5pm); France v Albania (8pm). Group 'B': Russia v Slovakia (2pm).