Friday 24 June 2016 16:29, UK
Roy Hodgson is expecting another Euro 2016 war of attrition when England take on Iceland in the last 16.
England finished the group stage in France unbeaten but they could only draw with Russia and Slovakia - either side of claiming a last-gasp victory over Wales - after finding their well-organised defences hard to break down.
They now take on Iceland in Nice on Monday night as they come up against a side with a similar record in finishing second in Group F and Hodgson believes their coach Lars Lagerback will adopt similar tactics.
"I fear it won't differ enormously from our group games because Iceland aren't an expansive team," England boss Hodgson told FA TV.
"I know the coach Lars Lagerback very well and he always prepares his teams extremely well in that way, so I don't think we're going to benefit from lots and lots of space in the game.
"You take what you get in the last 16 and we are just pleased to be there, so we need to make sure we do enough preparation for the game."
Hodgson gave his players a rest day on Wednesday but the full 23-man squad were back in training at their Chantilly base on Thursday morning as they started their build-up to Monday's game at the Allianz Riviera.
"It is purely and simply one of preparation now, making sure the players know as much as we can tell them about Iceland and the type of game they're likely to face," Hodgson said.
"We know Iceland have played extremely well in their qualifying group games, where they topped their group ahead of Holland, and since they have been here they have had some remarkable successes, so we know it won't be an easy game."
England only found the net three times during the group stage and Hodgson wants them to find a "killer instinct" to help turn dominance of possession into goals when the knockout stage kicks off.
He added: "Their [Iceland's] success has been built on a very solid defensive organisation and an incredibly hard work ethic.
"We'll have to make certain that we are aware of that and hope that we can keep the domination that we've had in games and the control we've had in the games, but maybe be a bit more ruthless and have more of a killer instinct in front of goal.
"Our ratio of creating chances and taking chances is not good, that needs to be improved and everyone is aware of that so it will be nice if we can start with that on Monday evening."
Hodgson made six changes for England's final group match against Slovakia but he believes he made the correct decision even though the match ended goalless.
"With the full-backs, it was more a case really of following what they do in their club sides," he said.
"[Kyle] Walker and [Danny] Rose don't very often play three matches in a row in a week, at one stage they were not even playing two matches in a week, because [Tottenham manager Mauricio] Pochettino was rotating the sets of full-backs all the time, so I thought it was a very obvious thing to do in that [Slovakia] match.
"So the two players I suppose you could say really got a rest, were Dele Alli and Wayne Rooney, but even they came on for 30 and 25 minutes respectively, so they didn't get as much rest as we would like, but they should be that little bit fresher.
"The front players were the two who had finished the game against Wales, and the two that only played the first half, they have also had a bit of a rest."
