England manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that his side are feeling the weight of expectation going into their Euro 2012 opener with France on Monday.
The Three Lions have only ever won one major tournament and are yet to add to that since the 1966 World Cup triumph. England have been labelled as one of the favourites for nearly every tournament since then, and Hodgson says that he is worried by this demand for success.
"We have not won as many tournaments as we should have done. We all feel that weight," said Hodgson.
"There is nothing we can do to take that weight from our shoulders, except to embrace Euro 2012 and make certain we are not afraid of it.
"We have to believe in ourselves and the players should go out as they do every week in the Premier League in similarly pressurised situations playing in front of 50, 60, 70,000 fans with quite a lot of expectation and weight on their shoulders."
England face France in Donetsk, Ukraine today at 5pm (GMT) in their first Group D game.
Matt Cotton
