Everton midfielder James Garner has warned Spain that England will treat tomorrow night's Nations League decider 'like a final'. Thomas Tuchel's side have already secured qualification for the last-eight, but travel to Madrid for a shootout against the world champions for top spot in the group.
England lost the reverse fixture 3-2 at Wembley in September, but when asked if his side are overly bothered about topping the group, Garner replied: "1000 per cent, I think you're playing against the best team in the world. So, you want to go there, you want to test yourself, you want to compete. And ultimately, you want to win that game against."
Garner: It's a chance to win the trophy
"It's kind of like a final, really. It's a chance to test ourselves against the world's best, so it'll be a good game," Garner said. "I think maybe because it's a new thing [Nations League], people might have that opinion [that it's not important]. But, you know, it's a chance to win the trophy for the team, so I think it's just as important."
Garner came off the bench with 13 minutes of normal time remaining in the 2-1 win over Croatia at Wembley. The midfielder, who has impressed for Everton this season, faces tough competition to nail down a place in Tuchel's starting line-up, with the likes of Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson and Jude Bellingham ahead of him.
Garner on his England place
When asked if he finally feels like an England player, Garner said: "1000 per cent, I think you have to. Can I get ahead of them? Who knows. Like you said, they are very, very good players. They have been and they still are over the last few years. I love competition and they're the lads in my position at the moment, but I've just got to keep going at club level."
"When I got my chance [on Thursday], if that goal goes in, that helps my case a little bit more. I'm just happy to be around the lads and play with such quality."
While Harrison Armstrong and Tyrique George both played an hour of England under-21s' 1-0 defeat to Portugal at Ashton Gate Stadium on Friday night. And Sebastien Pocognoli has revealed Scotland are stepping up their pursuit of recruiting Hayden Hackney.
Scotland's pursuit of Hackney
The Everton midfielder previously played for Scotland's under-21s side, before switching allegiances to play for England at that level. It remains to be seen whether Hackney would be open to the switch, but Pocognoli said: "I've done it with many players. I'll do my best to bring them. With (Harvey) Barnes it was different. I knew before my first camp that he was different. The two other lads (Gray and Hackney) are young lads. In a year's time, we will see. Right now, we have players in the squad who are performing well. It will always be them who are the priority."
"We know which players are eligible to represent the country one day. We had this case with Barnes at Newcastle when I arrived here. I'm not busy with this right now because there are too many other things to consider to make the team perform well. But I try to anticipate everything. We are always proactive in all of these situations. What is very exciting about those two names [Gray and Hackey] is that they are young players. That's interesting. That's part of my role, for sure. Not only for me but for other people working at the Scottish FA. And we are on it. We also have a lot of good players in the under-21s and that's the first step for me, for the future."
