Henry’s Euro 2016 preview

France legend Thierry Henry knows what it takes to win a major tournament, having won the World Cup on home soil in 1998 and the European Championship two years later.

The French are hosting Euro 2016 this summer, and Henry believes his nation has a great chance of winning a tournament on their own turf again.

Here, Henry also discusses England’s chances in France, as well as world champions Germany as he previews the tournament…

What would be a successful tournament for England?

People will talk about maybe going to the quarter-finals or semi-finals and I hope for England that they are going to win it, if France don’t win it, obviously.

But for me a successful tournament is coming out of it as a team. I hope they go back home – on the Eurostar – as a team. That is the most important thing.

As a point of comparison, France went through the same thing. Didier Deschamps went to the World Cup and kind of said, ‘We are going to go there to prepare for the Euros’. We all knew they were not going to win it, but they came out stronger as a team.

For me, success would be that; knowing finally that you have a strong team.

Who are England’s key players?

I have to mention Harry Kane. You finally have a guy who can bail you out in some games. If you are defending you know he can always score at any moment.

I would also like to mention Wayne Rooney. Is he going to start? That is going to be Roy Hodgson’s problem throughout the whole tournament because I’m sure the press and the fans are going to argue that throughout the whole tournament.

Rooney is going to be key, even though he is not playing. To be in and around the youngsters will be key. We saw with Tottenham recently, for example, that those youngsters can be mentally weak sometimes.

Rooney, who has the experience of playing in a lot of tournaments and being sent off against Portugal, is vital in that dressing room. How many guys have been in big tournaments before?

Is he going to start? I don’t know. If you play Spain or Germany who are going to come onto you and have possession …

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