On Tuesday evening England secured their place in Brazil for the World Cup 2014. Their 2-0 win over Poland saw them top Group H with 22 points and remain undefeated throughout the qualifying campaign. Wayne opened the scoring in the 44th minute and became England’s highest scorer in World cup games.
Speaking to his official website Wayne spoke of his joy at reaching the World Cup finals – “It feels great knowing that we will finally be going to Brazil. It’s been tough but I think we totally deserve our place and our performances got a lot better as the campaign went on. Tonight’s game was a great game to play in, the pressure was on and we knew we would have to be patient. Getting the goal was a great feeling, it always is to score for your country but to break the deadlock in a game like that is something else. A lot of credit must also go to the England fans who have been behind us every game, especially tonight they were brilliant and helped the team through”.
Wayne was asked about why he wasn’t wearing his headband at the time of the first goal – “To be honest I was glad it wasn’t on when the opportunity came, as it was the sort of header that needed directing. I was that delighted when it nestled in the bottom corner that I forgot all about it. The headband had come off a few minutes earlier when I tangled with one of their defenders, it was when we were putting a lot of pressure on Poland and I didn’t have time to go looking for it. It’s not something I’ve enjoyed wearing but until the doctors say otherwise I will keep it on.”
Wayne’s goal meant he finished the qualifying campaign with 7 goals in total and as a result became England’s highest ever scorer in competitive matches (28 goals), overtaking Michael Owen (26 goals) – “Personally I’ve had a good qualifying campaign and managed to score a few goals which is always good, but the main thing is that the team have qualified. It’s a proud feeling knowing that I’ve scored the most goals for my country in competitive games but it will mean a lot more if I can add to that total in Brazil for the World Cup.”
We also asked Wayne about the rumours in this mornings press regarding Roy Hodgson’s half time team talk – “To be honest it’s really annoying that something such as this should see the light of day, all the lads know what type of guy Roy is and to try and pin some form of label on him is absolutely ridiculous. Roy spoke to Andros straight away who took no offence whatsoever, hopefully that’s now the end of the matter”.
All eyes are now on Brazil 2014 and Wayne has let it be known that England are not going there for a holiday – “Brazil is a great football nation and to play a World Cup there is a dream for a lot of players. However we are not going their as tourists, we are going there to compete. We have a good squad with a good mix of senior and youth players and hopefully we will continue to improve and play the best tournament we possibly can.”
