Gary Cahill: England have 'unfinished business' after last year's World Cup

Defender says England are determined to make impact at Euro 2016

Gary Cahill (right) in action for England against Slovenia (Getty Images)

The England defender Gary Cahill says that the team have “unfinished business” after last summer’s World Cup finals and are determined to make an impact at Euro 2016.

The Chelsea man was speaking after Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Slovenia which extends England’s unbeaten run to ten games this season and leaves them, along with Slovakia, as the only side in Euro 2016 qualifying to have won all their games.

Cahill, 29, has played in every qualifier and all the friendlies bar the draw with Italy in Turin in March. He had a solid World Cup finals but lost Mario Balotelli for the decisive goal against the Italians in Manaus in the first group game last summer.

Cahill said: “It’s been fantastic. I think it shouldn’t be overlooked the way we have gone unbeaten and the year that we have had. It’s a great achievement, something we are very proud of and something we spoke about before the [Slovenia] game. When we went 1-0 down which wasn’t ideal but we responded in the right way. We didn’t want to waste all our hard work. It is something we should be very proud of.

“Hopefully it can be better [at Euro 2016], just going in the same direction. You don’t want to talk too much about the future but it’s going in the right direction. Everyone is getting more experience, the younger players have gained experience of the Premier League, have another year under their belt, more England caps.

“Experience is key going into the tournament and [there is] a lot of unfinished business from the summer [of 2014] and [Euro 2016] is something personally I can’t wait to come around. I’m sure everyone feels the same way.

“When you are speaking about Premier League games, you have a disappointment and the chance comes around in two or three days or a week. If you have a disappointing tournament you wait two years. It’s a long time but we keep working hard, keep working in the right direction, gain experience all the time.”

Cahill said that the flat atmosphere in Dublin contributed to the stale performance there the previous weekend in the 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland. By contrast, the 16,500-capacity Stozice Stadium in Ljubljana generated a lot of noise and hostility towards the England team.

“Everyone wants the atmosphere, everyone wants a loud crowd. It’s obviously down to us as well to give that to them. I thought we did that and the intensity was there,” Cahill said. “It’s down to us to go out and perform and have real intensity in our play. I think the key was the importance of the game and the feeling as players that we didn’t want to waste the last game of the season to go unbeaten.”