A gamble by coach Roy Hodgson failed to pay off on Monday as his reshuffled England side drew 0-0 with Slovakia and failed to top its group at the European Championship.
England still qualified for the knockout stages. But the result at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard meant England was leapfrogged at the top of Group B by Wales, which could now face an easier opponent after Gareth Bale helped his team beat Russia 3-0.
Hodgson made six changes from the 2-1 victory over Wales and left captain Wayne Rooney on the bench. Although they failed to break the stalemate, his players kept the pressure up throughout the game and managed 30 shots while Slovakia rarely played in England's final third.
"Finishing second is a disappointment," Hodgson said after his team finished the group stage with a win and two draws. "But we are still in the last 16 and who is to say the team we will play will be that much strongerIJ You just don't know. The way we are playing, I am not frightened of anybody."
England created chances but failed to turn them into goals against a very defensiveSlovakia side that can still advance as one of the four best third-place teams.Slovakia has four points, with England on five and Wales with six. Russia returns home with one point.
Slovakia had never kept a clean sheet in six previous games at a major tournament and had lost its three previous matches against England.
Three in three for Bale
TOUlOUSE: Gareth Bale made it three goals in three games as Wales overwhelmed Russia 3-0 on Monday to reach the knockout stages of the European Championship for the first time.
Playing in its first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup, Wales defied expectations to win Group B ahead of England and send Russia home with an impressive counterattacking display that rested on more than just the talents of Bale.
"I've never seen a better performance from any Wales team than I saw tonight," Wales coach Chris Coleman said. "As a nation geographically we are small but if you judge us by passion you could say we were a continent tonight."
Because England could only draw 0-0 with Slovakia, the result meant that Wales topped the group with six points, one more than England.