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Peter Crouch knew England had lost 2010 World Cup when Capello offered players booze before game
Former England striker Peter Crouch reveals the “great puzzlement” among the squad when manager Capello offered them beer and wine the night before their biggest game.
Last night’s victory for England over Germany in Euro 2020 had the country jumping up and down in celebration, with more than a third of us tuning in to watch the Lions take the win. However, one footballing ace recalls a very different atmosphere when England faced Germany in the 2010 World Cup.
Peter Crouch has revealed the baffling offer made to the England squad by manager Fabio Capello on the eve of their infamous clash with Germany.
“It was the night before the day you dream of as an England player: taking on Germany in the last 16 of a World Cup, with a global audience,” the former Liverpool and Tottenham striker told the Daily Mail .
“What should have been a time of great excitement, however, had become a time of great puzzlement in our squad.
“Fabio Capello, a man who had previously not allowed us to have butter or ketchup at meal time, gave an invitation that none of us could quite believe.
“‘If you want to have a beer or a glass of wine with your dinner, you can,’ Capello told us.
“Where had this come from? Nobody wanted him to make that offer — nobody even gave a second’s thought to taking him up on it. But the very fact that he made it showed how badly things were going for us at the 2010 World Cup.”
Manager Capello was infamous for his strict approach to his players’ diets and training regimes, and up until that point it is understood that alcohol was very much off limits.
However, following a disastrous group-stage performance which saw England draw with the USA and Algeria before just edging out Slovenia, the booze restrictions in camp suddenly and mysteriously lifted.
Things went just as badly for the England side against Germany the day after the rules were relaxed, with England succumbing to a 4-1 defeat in a match remembered for Frank Lampard’s ‘ghost goal’.