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Gary Cahill remains unbeaten as captain, but England fail to take chances against Slovakia at Euro 2016

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By David Pasztor
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Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Perhaps the worst thing to happen to what could've been a wide open and exciting day at Euro 2016 were the two early goals from Wales against Russia.  All four teams had a chance to advance from Group B at the start of the day, but Wales's comprehensive win against a very weak Russia side meant that both England and Slovakia would've advanced with a draw, or even a loss, probably.  Those two early goals from Aaron Ramsey and Neil Taylor, news of which no doubt filtered across from Toulouse to Saint-Étienne, meant that if neither team tried to do too much, they'd both be in the Round of 16.  That's the cynical view in any case.

In truth, while England did generally play at a disappointingly slow pace, they created enough chances to win most games.  And they created plenty of half- and quarter-chances, too, for someone to strike lucky, but Slovakia, whose lack of a proper striker was no more evident than today, hung on for the point.  In case you don't want to count, that's 29 shots to 4, including several big saves from Kozáčik and a goal-line clearance from Škrtel.

With the world watching, but thanks to the team's tactics, Marek Hamšík had one of his quieter games (at least in terms of attacking influence), more reminiscent of previous big occasions with the national team rather than the first two games at this tournament.  That said, having the capacity and the flexibility to adapt to different roles are just more positive qualities from the Napoli star that have made him such a frequent name in the rumor mill as of late.

With Slovakia concentrating on defense, Chelsea's Brave Gary Cahill wasn't asked to do too much, but what he was asked to do, he did well enough.  Rooney was rested at the start, so Cahill started as captain for the fourth time, failing to win for the first time on such an occasion, but remaining unbeaten.  The only concern would be that he appeared to re-aggravate the back injury that had limited him in the pre-Euro friendlies.  And that he had to trot out some of the lines he had practiced with Chelsea during the previous season.

Chelsea ran out of "another days" during the season, but England have even less of a luxury.  It's one and done from here on out.  Next up will be the runners-up of Group F, which seems impossible to call at this point though I'd guess would be Hungary.

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