Play maker Joe Cole says he won’t let the risk of suspension affect the way he performs for England against Estonia on Saturday. England are trading at 8 to 1 odds to win Euro 2008 at SportsBetting.com and that looks well worth a wager with the side in rock solid form right now.
The 25-year-old Chelsea star has one yellow card to his name following the caution in the last Euro 2008 qualifier with Russia at Wembley. If he picks up another on Saturday it would see him banned for return clash in Moscow.
"It is not a problem," Cole said. "A lot of my yellow cards are quite silly ones. I do all right, I will be fine. It won't affect the way I play, no way. I have always liked going in for a challenge so you are inevitably going to pick up bookings here and there. I don't want to make a big deal of it. I will just go into the game and play my normal game. All I will be worried about if I start on Saturday is performing well and hoping England win the game. There won't be anything else in my mind. I just want to do my job."
England will move to the brink of qualifying for next summer's European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland with another home victory at Wembley. And it will be a massive surprise if they don‚t win because lowly Estonia are ranked 110th in the world. The eastern Europeans have lost eight of their 10 Group H qualifiers.
England’s recent form is tremendous. They´ve kept five clean sheets following in the past 12 months ago and are now just 3 points behind group leaders Croatia. Cole says there is optimism in the squad but the players are still cautious that the job of attaining qualification is not yet finished.
"There is a different atmosphere after results last month, but a different challenge as well. You have got to be on guard against complacency," said Cole, 25. "We can't go out on the pitch and play like Brazil, try flicking the ball about. We have to be England and do what we do best, which we have done in the last four qualifying games. If we do that and guard against complacency, we will get the right result on Saturday."
