Gary Cahill feels England need to be ready to win ugly at the European Championships this summer.
The 26-year-old was at the focal point of Chelsea's defensive effort as they overcame first Barcelona and then Bayern Munich to clinch this season's Champions League, and believes England's style of play does not matter if they are to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
e told Sky Sports: "In this sort of tournament, knock-out football, sometimes you win playing good football and sometimes you win playing backs-to-the-wall football.
"It truly is all about the results. It is nice to win games playing well but what I have learned in the last six months, it is also about getting the right results. If we did that with England this summer it would be fantastic.
"There is some great quality in this squad. There are some great players here and we should be going into the games confident."
England's Euro 2012 expectations have lowered following the resignation of Fabio Capello and appointment of Roy Hodgson as manager, but Cahill thinks fans have reason to be excited about the Three Lions' prospects.
He added: "It is the same players who have come in. The manager who has come in is vastly experienced in football around the world.
"I only met the gaffer twice before meeting up with England and he came across well.
"I am looking forward to working with him and his staff. We have some fantastic players and a great squad. And we are going in with a vastly experienced manager."
Quizzed as to whether he believed England could win the tournament, Cahill said: "I don't see why not, especially when you have the players here who have experienced winning things and experienced going through the stages to reach semi-finals and finals."
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Rank | Team | W/D/L | Pts |
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Cities & Stadiums
The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments
Year | Winners | Runner-up | Third place |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | Spain | Germany | Russia / Turkey |
2004 | Greece | Portugal | Netherlands / Czech Republic |
2000 | France | Italy | Netherlands / Portugal |
1996 | Germany | Czech Republic | France / England |
1992 | Denmark | Germany | Netherlands / Sweden |
1988 | Netherlands | Soviet Union | Italy / West Germany |
1984 | France | Spain | Denmark / Portugal |
1980 | West Germany | Belgium | Czechoslovakia |
1976 | Czechoslovakia | West Germany | Netherlands |
1972 | West Germany | Soviet Union | Belgium |
1968 | Italy | Yugoslavia | England |
1964 | Spain | Soviet Union | Hungary |
1960 | Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Czechoslovakia |