Peter Shilton column: The real tournament starts now for England

There’s been a bit of criticism about England after their 0-0 last group stage draw against Slovakia, but the group stage is just about qualifying and we’ve achieved that.

I remember in the 1990 World Cup in Italy we drew 1-1 against the Republic of Ireland, 0-0 against the Netherlands and beat Egypt 1-0 to finish top of the group. The press slaughtered us, but we went on to make the semi-finals, which is still our best result in a World Cup since winning it in 1966.

I personally don’t disagree with the way Roy Hodgson rested players in the last game; we weren’t expecting Slovakia to come at us and they didn’t. It was always going to be tight with not a lot of chances.

There’s not a lot of difference between the players that Roy played and rested, and there was a good case for resting Wayne Rooney’s legs for the Last 16, it was a calculated risk that gave Jack Wilshere a run out. After all we need to rotate the squad to keep everyone match fit.

We changed as soon as we realised the goals weren’t coming anyway, and we changed with plenty of time to make a difference, but they still couldn’t score, so it’s not as though the risk backfired.

It was just one of those nights where we didn’t have any calmness in front of goal, fortune didn’t go our way and the keeper had a particularly good game. It’s also very difficult when a side sticks 10 men behind the ball.

Sides will have to come out more in the Last 16 so it should be a lot more open.

The Slovakia draw left us second in the group behind Wales and that’s left us in a tougher side of the draw with the likes of France and Germany, so in that respect finishing second hasn’t been great for us.

But as it happens we’ve drawn Iceland, who we should beat. Of all the sides you could have picked in the Last 16, Iceland would have been one of the most preferable opponents.

They’ve done exceptionally well to get this far, they are well-organised and won’t be easy to play against, they have a lot of determination and pride, and will be full of confidence. There are no easy games, but if we have any aspirations of doing well we should be able to beat them.

On the whole, we haven’t looked totally convincing, but in reality we’ve dominated games. Joe Hart hasn’t had much to do and the only thing we should have done is beat Slovakia.

Defensively, we’ve definitely not been tested yet and the real tournament starts now. But for a few lapses of concentration from Chris Smalling we’ve otherwise been superb at the back, we just have to stay focused.

England have got a lot of ability, but you still can’t look too far ahead as they are very unpredictable. They’ve got goals in the team but I’m still worried about the defense. It’s a tough one to call but once they get to the quarter-final anything can happen. They’ve got the ability to do very well, but I still wouldn’t confidently say they can go all the way.

— Peter Shilton OBE is the global ambassador for Seattle Sport Sciences, Inc. and brand ISOTechne. For more information, visit www.isotechne.com