John Stones admits he understands the frustration of England fans following the dismal Euro 2024 draw with Denmark, but has backed the team to swiftly move on from the disappointment.
England could have advanced as Group C winners had they beaten Denmark in Frankfurt but instead put in a poor showing in a 1-1 draw.
Harry Kane had put Gareth Southgate’s side ahead only for Morten Hjulmand to level with a fine long-range strike as Denmark then enjoyed the better of proceedings.
Jeers from England fans greeted the full-time whistle at the Deutsche Bank Park but, while Stones acknowledged the boos, he also believes the tide will turn against Slovenia next time out.
“I know the crowd got a bit frustrated but I think there are great signs for us to keep moving forward, keep improving,” he said.
“If we can control emotions in these big games it’s a sign of a winning team and we want to do everyone proud.
“We gave everything. Maybe it was not some people’s cup of tea, but we go again and we keep fighting for our team-mates and to top the group.
“I think we all know that we could have played better. We could have used the ball more, created more chances.
We've got a point out of the game against a good team, and we move forward— John Stones
“I’m a positive person. I always look at the positives out of the game and look where we can improve but look, we’ve got a point out of the game against a good team, and we move forward.”
It is a familiar pattern for England, who have never won the opening two group games at a European Championship.
A goalless stalemate against Scotland at Euro 2020 was greeted with a similarly negative response but Stones is ready to put the Denmark performance to bed.
“I think emotions are high, definitely after the game and rightly so,” he added.
“But if we put it into perspective, it’s somewhere we’ve been before, we’ve not played at our best and got a result, which is frustrating on one hand, but again, it’s tournament football and we are top of the group.
“So a lot of positives to take out of it. I know it’s very frustrating to not get something more out of the game, which we wanted but as I said we’ve done this in previous tournaments and forgot about those games quite quickly.
“But we have to move forward next game and get another three points and finish the group top and I feel very confident that we can do that.”
