Roy Hodgson wants his England team to be full of confidence and rested when they face Ukraine after hammering Moldova.
Three Lions boss pleased to be able to rest key men
Roy Hodgson hopes his five-star England team will be full of confidence and comparatively rested when they face Ukraine after hammering Moldova.
The Three Lions began their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign in perfect fashion in Chisinau on Friday night with the thrashing of their Moldovan hosts.
And they will now go into Tuesday's second meeting of their opening double-header in a positive frame of mind when Ukraine visit Wembley for a rematch from Euro 2012.
Two goals from Frank Lampard, the first a penalty, and further efforts from Jermain Defoe, James Milner and Leighton Baines did the damage against Moldova.
And boss Hodgson told
Sky Sports after the win: "It was a great result, great start for us, many good performances, especially the whole team's performance in the first half.
"I think we have come away from a potentially very difficult game with a comfortable victory and hopefully that will give us some confidence before the game on Tuesday."
Happy
The ease of the win over Moldova even allowed Hodgson to make some substitutions in order to avoid fatigue among his key players.
Captain Steven Gerrard went off at half-time, when the score was already 3-0, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Defoe were also replaced inside 70 minutes.
Despite the changes, England kept striving for more goals and got their rewards through Milner and then Baines' deflected free-kick.
When asked how happy he was that his players kept going, Hodgson said: "I never doubted it but I'm always pleased when that happens.
"We made three changes and had the chance to rest a few players. Hopefully that will do us some good by the time we play Ukraine, who are of course one of the favourites in the group, like ourselves, so we face a tough task."
