http://tinyurl.com/2y5qks I felt great to be playing again last night, after sitting in the stands for the first game on Monday, it was good to be back in a kit and out on the pitch. With the roof on it made it a weird atmosphere, though. I’ve never played ‘indoors’ like that before, it was so hot and sticky, there was just no air inside the stadium. You could tell how hot it was by the sweat was streaming off everyone. I thought it was a really good game, and we played very well. We got at them early on and looked like we could score three or four goals, we had the chances. When Leroy scored we sat back a bit and defended deep. But you have to give Italy credit, they are a very good Italian side and they put a lot of pressure on us. We coped with it pretty well, they had a couple of chances but nothing too nasty from our point of view. The players coming from wide areas caused us problems which forced us to sit back a bit. They tried to drag me out wide, but I just had to sit in the centre, there’s no way I was leaving Nedum one-on-one. We needed to stay close together and give Scott protection. I managed to get forward on a few occasions and had a couple of chances myself. I don’t know how the ‘keeper’s kept out my header early on in the first half. It came to me about six yards out and I just directed it towards the goal, it must have just hit his arm. My main priority was to make sure their centre forward Pazzini didn’t score. Some people were saying he’s one of the best strikers in the tournament, but I thought we coped with him really well. Italy are probably the best team I’ve seen out here so far, their technique is excellent, their midfield players were great, so to get a draw and be in a better situation than them going in to the last game is good for us. I’d rather be in our position than theirs, it’s in our hands, we’ve still got that 100% record and we’re confident of doing well. After the game, coming out of the dressing room, there is the mixed zone where the media stop and ask you questions. I spoke to a few different people, newspapers, radio. As I started to speak to one man who was holding a microphone, all of a sudden these lights and cameras all turned at me and I had about three microphones under my nose and two cameras filming me. Speaking to the press is all part of the job, some people don’t like doing it, but I think you have to really. There’s no point just walking straight past them as though they aren’t there, so I haven’t got a problem with it. Away from training and games I’ve been relaxing as much as possible. We’ve got a good team spirit and that’s been building more and more this week as the lads enjoy a laugh. We have a few pranksters in the side, some people think I’m one, but it helps keep everyone happy and the banter flying around. We know when to do it and when not to, we’re here to do a job and that’s our main focus. The lads had a bit of free time this afternoon, a couple of the lads went into town to have a look round, some went out on the hotel’s hire bikes, but I just got my head down and had some rest. We’re now turning our attentions to Sunday’s game. We’ve got Sky Sports in the meal room and the team meeting room at the hotel, so we’ve had the other games on. Serbia were fantastic against Italy, they are a very well organised team. I know they are through, but I still think they will give us the respect that they have against the other sides. I don’t think we should be worried about them one bit, if we play as we can and stick together as a team then there’s no reason why we can’t get the result we want. Steven Taylor --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.62.77.83 ※ 编辑: lapoto 来自: 61.62.77.83 (06/16 16:56)