Preview: Slovenia – England

(GSM) – After two poor showings have led many to question the current status of the England squad, but they have one more chance to seal progress to the round of 16 on Wednesday if they can beat Slovenia.

England looked quite poor in a 0-0 draw against Algeria, leaving the Three Lions with just two points from their first two Group C matches.

Despite this, England can still move into the knockout rounds with a victory over Slovenia. Anything less, and they’ll have to rely on the result of the USA-Algeria game.

Slovenia, meanwhile, have been one of the surprise outfits of the whole tournament. After a late 1-0 win over Algeria, Matjaz Kek’s side stormed out to a 2-0 lead against the USA before ultimately settling for a controversial 2-2 draw.

A point would be enough to see Slovenia through, possibly even as group winners.

England will likely stick with David James in goal, but Emile Heskey’s place is in doubt after a couple of poor outings.

Jamie Carragher is suspended after receiving his second yellow card of the tournament, putting strain on an already thin center half corps. Matthew Upson will start in Carragher’s stead.

For Slovenia, no changes are expected from the side that looked great for 45 minutes against the USA.

One piece of bad news, however, as forward Nejc Pecnik is out of the tournament with a broken ankle suffered in training the day after the USA game.

Players on booking that could miss the Round of 16 are Slovenia’s Alexander Radosavljevic, Andrej Komac, Bostjan Cesar, Bojan Jokic, Marko Suler, and Andraz Kirm.

For England, Steven Gerrard and James Milner are the only two players on a booking, and Milner is not expected to see significant time.