Striker praises cool attitude displayed by teammates.
Check in to Manchester United vs Southampton FC
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney said that be thinks England deserve their place at next summer’s World Cup and saved their two best performances for the final two games of the qualifying campaign, Sky Sports reports.
Roy Hodgson’s men defeated Montenegro 4-1 on Friday before overcoming Poland on Tuesday night to book their place at next year’s showpiece tournament.
Rooney opened the scoring against the Poles with a first half header before skipper Steven Gerrard settled matters late on with a neat close range strike to make sure England topped Group H with an unbeaten record, just a point ahead of runners up Ukraine.
“We’re all delighted with the victory and to have qualified. It was a good group but that is 10 games unbeaten,” Rooney told Sky Sports.
“I think particularly in the last two games we have played some really good stuff and again tonight, so we deserved the victory.
“The last two games were always going to be pressure games. We needed six points but we’ve dealt with that and put in two good performances.”
Rooney’s goal took his tally for the qualifiers to seven, but he played down his own accomplishments to shed more light on the rest of the squad.
“It’s been a good qualifying campaign for myself and hopefully that will continue, but the important thing is we’ve qualified,” he added.
Asked about his captain, Rooney added: “He’s obviously one of our senior players and our captain, so to show that drive towards the end and get that goal which killed the game was great for him and we’re all enormously pleased for him.”