England must be ruthless – Hodgson

Roy Hodgson has called on his England squad to be ruthless when they take on Iceland in the last 16 at Euro 2016 on Monday night.

The Three Lions have the opportunity to progress to the quarter-finals of the European Championships as they take on the smallest nation at the tournament.

However, England, who are priced at 11.00 to win Euro 2016 outright, have struggled to break down previous opponents in Russia and Slovakia during the group stages.

Hodgson’s men were held to a 1-1 draw against Russia before playing out a goalless match against Slovakia despite dominating possession and created the majority of chances.

Iceland are expected to approach the match much in the same way to Russia and Slovakia as they bid to frustrate England and hold them at bay for as long as possible.

The England boss has called on his squad to be ruthless in their approach on Monday as they look to book a meeting with France in the quarter-finals.

Hodgson told reporters: “We need to be as ruthless as we can possibly be because we know there are no prizes, unfortunately, for playing what some people might think is good football. “It’s all about winning or losing and staying in or going out and we have been very brutal with ourselves in that respect and we have a very brutal focus.”

“We made it very clear amongst ourselves that it doesn’t matter that we, in our eyes, are playing well. “All that matters is that we haven’t won, and when you don’t win you get criticised and perhaps rightly so because there’s always a reason why you haven’t won.”