Football
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Roy Hodgson: England must step it up to be Euro 2016 contenders

England coach Roy Hodgson has told his players they must step up their performances if they want to have a chance of winning Euro 2016.

Hodgson's team will qualify for the European Championship if they beat San Marino on Saturday and Slovenia fail to defeat Switzerland.

Group E contains some of the weaker sides in Europe, and Hodgson was keen to stress that his players must not rest on their laurels if qualification is secured at the weekend.

"The manager said we can either go one way, keep winning and stay the way we are, or we can go up another level in our performances," England midfielder Jonjo Shelvey said.

"Because there's no reason why the England team, with the players we've got in this country, can't go to the European Championship and win it. That's what Roy Hodgson wants us to do and what we want to do.

"He wants us to win, and I'm sure we can.''

After three years without a cap, Shelvey has Hodgson to thank for giving him a second chance with England.

Hodgson had claimed 10 months ago that Gareth Southgate had told him Shelvey was "reticent" to play for the England under-21 team after having been capped by the senior side.

That prompted a backlash, but Shelvey said: "I can assure you on my daughter's life I have never refused to play for England. If I did, my dad would kill me."

After being branded "lazy" by Swansea manager Garry Monk last season, Shelvey recruited a personal trainer and a chef and said he had adopted a more "mature" approach.

"If you get to know me, you'll realise I just want to win," he said. "I've changed my ways. I don't have as many rows on the pitch as I did. I was a bit immature before, but I think I've controlled that red mist in the last six months."

The comments by Monk, a future England manager according to Shelvey, "could have gone one way or the other," the player said.

"You either just sit around and sulk on the bench or you get the bit between your teeth and really kick on," he explained. "I did that, and that is paying off now."

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