Euro 2016: Wayne Rooney ready to make up for his decade of defeat with England

It has been ten years since the Three Lions' captain last won a knockout game at a tournament with his country. Next Monday's clash with Iceland is an opportunity to correct that

Rooney needs to ensure his team-mates share his ambition and belief (Getty)

Wayne Rooney does not look back in anger at his previous tournaments with England, but there is certainly an exasperated air of frustration whenever the scars of Portugal, Germany, South Africa, Poland/Ukraine and Brazil are brought up.

It is a long list, more akin to a backpackers’ travelog than a footballer’s tale of woe, but aside from the flash of excitement generated by a teenaged Rooney at Euro 2004, the England captain has little to smile about.

Indeed, such has been the narrative of high hopes and low blows, even the light-hearted moments are rooted in disappointment.

“I remember in the last Euros, in the penalty shoot-out against Italy,” Rooney recalled as he reflected on his tournament history at England’s Les Fontaines media centre in Chantilly. “I always know which way I’m going with my penalties and (Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi) Buffon was actually pointing and telling me he knows I’m going that way.

“He was right, so then I started wondering if I should go the other way. I ended up the going the same way, but he dived the other way.”

Rooney, at least, can claim not to have missed in a penalty shoot-out for England, but as Roy Hodgson’s team prepares for the knock-out stages of Euro 2016, and a second round tie against Iceland in Nice next Monday, the spectre of another shoot-out hangs over the squad.

It has now become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. England fail in shoot-outs, the subject is raised on a daily basis, they practise penalties and, well, everyone knows how the story usually ends.

Rather than speak about ‘doing the business over ninety minutes,’ England’s players allow themselves to be dragged into the debate about practising penalties or otherwise.

Rooney admits that penalties are practised almost daily at England’s Stade de Bourgognes, but the 30-year-old sees a bigger picture, insisting that the time has come for the players to aim high and achieve.

Having played in five major tournaments for his country, Rooney has won just one knock-out tie – a second round victory against Ecuador in 2006 – and he admits that sorry record needs to change.

Rooney's last knockout stage win with England came against Ecuador in 2006 (Getty)

“Ecuador?” Rooney said. “In my time, playing for England in tournaments has been disappointing because we haven’t gone further in knockout stages.

“But I feel we have a chance of doing really well in this tournament. It’s going to be tough, but we are confident, we have a very good team.

“Other teams will be looking at us and saying they are not too pleased we are in their half of the draw. The tournament starts here really.

“But in previous tournaments, I haven’t played as well as I can do and I accept that.

“In terms of this one, I look at it and wonder how I can do better than in other tournaments and do better for the team.

“I think the role I am playing suits me and suits the team and, if I have to be the person to step up and win us games, I will do that.”

Having been billed as the ‘golden boy of English football’ by Sven-Goran Eriksson following England’s quarter-final elimination at the 2006 World Cup – Rooney’s red card in the penalty shoot-out defeat against Portugal was another low point – the Manchester United forward has cut a frustrated figure at tournaments since Germany a decade ago.

We have players capable of doing magical things.

&#13; <p>Wayne Rooney</p>&#13;

And he admits that, for the first time, he is now involved in a tournament with England where he has not burdened himself with the pressure of being the only man capable of making success happen.

“I have always held a lot of pressure in at previous tournaments, feeling I have to be the one who has to win games and tournaments,” Rooney said. “But we now have a lot of players who can do that and I am happy to sit in the background and allow the players do that.

“The pressure is on us all to do well, but I have always gone into a tournament thinking if I don’t play at my best I cannot see us winning it.

“I have come into this tournament and we have players capable of doing magical things.

“We are different, but we have match-winners. We have five or six match-winners in our team and I cannot say we have always had that.

“Previously, when it didn’t go well, it would build up inside. But I think I’m a different person, a different player, to what I was then.

"I think that has shown in my football; just naturally as a person I’ve matured a lot. I don’t think you’ll see that (frustration) again.

"It’s part of your development. That’s who I was and I have no regrets about the person I was back then.

“I’m sure that, in five years’ time, I’ll have no regrets about the person I am today. It’s part of football. You learn from it.”

Rooney controversially criticised fans for booing after a goalless draw with Algeria (Getty)

So what has happened to the firebrand, the ‘street footballer’ whose burning desire to win often led to the incidents of frustration, such as the Portugal red card and televised abuse of England fans following a stalemate against Algeria in South Africa?

“I think first of all, it was my children, having kids,” Rooney said. “It made me look at things differently, but of course, taking over as captain of Manchester United and England was, in terms of how I was with my team-mates then a lot of things in terms of football, when I changed.

“The big thing was that I didn’t want to be remembered as a captain who wasn’t good for his team, wasn’t good for his team-mates and wasn’t good for his club or country.

“I wanted to be a success and I think with everything I have done, I have always wanted to be successful.

“I want to be a successful captain for both Manchester United and England. I still feel I have got time to do that with England and hopefully it will be in the next few weeks.”

England’s prospects of success have not been helped by the failure to win Group B which has left Hodgson’s team in the half of the draw alongside heavyweights such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

If England are to win Euro 2016, they must claim scalps they have not claimed in a major tournament for half a century.

But Rooney insists that the gap between England and the likes of Spain and Germany has now closed enough for the squad to believe they can overcome any opponent.

“If this was four years ago and you were saying you have to play France, Spain, Germany, you would have been worried,” he said. “But I think the gap has changed, and not just with ourselves to those teams but also with the likes of Wales. Belgium have also become a really good team.

‘Italy are doing well, as they always do at tournaments, but the gap to get to those teams is not as big.

“I think it shows there has been an improvement in a lot of teams, but perhaps it shows some of them (top teams) aren’t as good as they were.

“There’s not many easy games in international football now. No disrespect to someone like San Marino, but beyond that, there aren’t many easy games anymore.”

Rather than claim to have been impressed by the established powers, Rooney believes that Croatia – who England cannot meet until the final – have emerged as the team to beat.

‘I think they’re the team I’ve enjoyed watching most,” he said. “They have some really good players. Luka Modric, for me, is a great player. He makes them tick and I’ve been really impressed with them.

“They are all good teams, but Croatia have played some of the best football in the tournament, so whichever way it went, it was going to be tough for us.

“But I feel our squad is as good as anyone’s and we are capable of beating anyone.”

So what constitutes success for Rooney, a player who has claimed winners’ medals in every major competition bar the Europa League at club level?

Rooney came on as a late substitute against Slovakia on Monday (Getty)

Will a run to the quarter-finals, England’s usual par score, be enough to leave him fulfilled?

“You don’t play for the achievement of getting to a quarter-final,” he said. “What would me and the other players get out of that?

“We want to win it and that’s the aim. I am not going to sit here and say we are a group of young players, so we’ll be happy to get to the quarter-finals, the future’s bright over the next 2-4 years and all that.

“We are here and we want to win it. Whether it happens remains to be seen, but we are not going to say that getting to the quarter-finals will be a sign of progress.

“I believe we are better than that.”

Rooney is certainly talking a good game. As captain, he now just has to make sure his team-mates share his ambition and belief.

And the determination to escape the scars that have fuelled their captain’s desire.