Stones urges positivity after draw with Denmark but sympathises with supporters | OneFootball

John Stones insists there are reasons to be positive about England’s Euro 2024 so far despite a disappointing draw with Denmark.

The Three Lions laboured to a 1-1 draw with Denmark in Frankfurt, with Harry Kane’s opener cancelled out by a stunner from Morten Hjulmand.

But Stones says he is staying positive, given that they top Group C with just a game left to play.

“Its somewhere we’ve been before,” said Stones, who played the full match alongside Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi. “We’ve not played at our best and got a result which is frustrating on one hand, but its tournament football and I think we’re top of the group, so there are a lot of positives to take out of it.”

He commiserated with the England supporters, admitting that “its very frustrating not to get something more out of the game,” but pointed out that this is not an unfamiliar position for England to be in.

“We’ve done this in previous tournaments and forgot about those games quite quickly,” said the Manchester City defender. “We have to move forward next game and get another three points and finish the group top. I feel very confident that we can do that.

“I think we all know that we could have played better. We could have used the ball more, created more chances, but again we have played against Denmark a few times now and they’re a great team with great players.

“They made it difficult today with a back five. I just said to someone in the changing room that they showed us quite a lot of respect and made it really difficult for us. I’m a positive person, I always look at the positives from the game, and I think we can improve but we’ve got a point out of the game against a good team and we move forward.”

Stones was full of praise for his new centre-back partner, Marc Guehi, who has replaced the injured Harry Maguire in the England starting 11 this tournament, saying that the two have developed a good partnership.

“We were both upset to concede a goal, but you know that’s football. I think our intentions are always to keep a clean sheet, it is so important in tournament football. I’ve not watched it back, but it seemed like a great strike on the pitch and sometimes you can’t do anything about that.

“I think there are great signs for us to keep moving forward, keep improving, and if we can control emotions in these big games, it is the sign of a winning team. You know we want to do everyone proud, we gave everything, maybe it wasn’t some people’s cup of tea, but you know we go again and we will keep fighting for our teammates and to top the group.”

England’s will face Slovenia in their third and final group stage match, which will take place on Tuesday in Cologne.

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