"God, I remember that one against Romania. (Phil Neville conceded a last minute penalty that sawEngland go out) We thought we were through. Please, I hope that doesn’t happen again. I’m really concerned about this game because of what happened at Euro 2000. The last thing we want is for it to be 0-0 or 1-1 with 10 or 15 minutes to go. That will make it so nervy. We want to be ahead and comfortable.
"We know Croatia are a good side, and that a win will take them through to the quarter-finals, but I don’t think the same will happen to us again. There is a lot more to this team than there was four years ago. In fact, there is an awful lot more, much more quality about us. I’m hoping we can put on a quality performance. We’ll be playing in a nice stadium and, with the game kicking off at 7.45, it will be the better temperature to perform in.
At Euro 96, I was one of the youngsters in the England squad and we were on such a high after beating Holland 4-1 to make it into the knockout stages that we were out playing golf and going shopping. We put so much into the section games against Switzerland, Scotland and Holland that I was absolutely knackered when we played Spain later in the tournament. I will never forget how tired I felt.
"I won’t be doing that this time. I’ll be in my bed, getting every ounce of rest I possibly can. I’m serious. In these tournaments, rest is really important, even for a lad as young as Wayne Rooney. He’s a livewire, and probably the only way we’ll be able to rest him is if we chain him to the bed, but he has to just sit down and put his feet up sometimes."