All is not well in the camp. The captain openly criticised his team-mates for lack of focus, not being daring enough, not working hard enough and for waving and blowing kisses to their wives and girlfriends at the final whistle, rather than warming down. The manager wasn't quite so varied in his criticism and merely called his players "cowards".
For once, it was not the Dutch camp in question, but rather the Swedish one. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, him of the magic feet and the silly haircut, is not only the star of the team but apparently their biggest critic at the moment. Somewhat amusingly, none of his team-mates chose to criticise Zlatan for his comments, which gives us a pretty good idea of the sort of power he has in the dressing room. On the face of it, this all signals good news for England, their next opponents. Low morale after throwing the game away against the Ukraine, a divided camp and players low on confidence after first the loss and then the verbal tongue-lashing from the AC Milan man. But on the other hand, the criticism may well have the opposite effect. It may be the wake-up call the players needed. That merely qualifying for the tournament and showing up isn't enough. Zlatan may have known exactly what he was doing all along.
The England camp is a happier one, if not a fitter one. Both Scott Parker and Steven Gerard are carrying knocks and both looked out on their feet in the latter stages of their 1-1 draw with France. If Roy Hodgson decides to rest one or both of them that could well mean a starting place in the middle for James Milner, who started on the right in the first match. But is the Manchester City man good enough to play there? Apparently so, because in the words of Theo Walcott when asked about the star performers at table-tennis within the England squad: "The worst lads in the squad at table tennis? I'd go for Ashley Cole. He's OK, but he's not that great. James Milner's good, but then he's good at everything.". Walcott himself may fill the role on the right of midfield if Milner is pushed inside. England are 2.35/4 to beat Sweden on Friday afternoon.
However good Milner is (at everything apparently), he's not good enough to head the Euro 2012 top goalscorer market. That honour belongs to Alan Dzagoev, the CSKA playmaker who netted his third goal of the tournament when scoring the opener against Poland last night, which ended in a 1-1 draw. We know he was matched at 180.0179/1 to finish as the leading scorer and that he's currently just 5.04/1 to end there, with Russia looking almost a certainty to at least make the quarter-finals. But what else do we know about him?
A playmaker or wide forward by trade, he's been at CSKA Moscow since 2008 and after a good first season there, there were rumours of interest from Real Madrid, which Dzagoev himself was quick to dismiss, saying he wanted to remain at CSKA for the foreseeable future. The (now) 21 year-old also suggested at the time that if he was to move, his preference would be for the Premier League and more specifically Chelsea. But it is Arsenal who apparently lead the race for his signature just now. The Gunners are searching for more attacking options with Robin van Persie looking increasingly likely to move on and Dzagoev's Russian team-mate Andryi Arshavin seen as a huge disappointment since his switch from Zenit St Petersburg, whom he was loaned back to in January. Dzagoev only has one year left on his contract so is 'only' valued at around €15 million, though that figure may continue to rise if he keeps on performing and scoring over the next two weeks.
And scoring has never really been a problem for him. He's got 37 goals in 153 appearances for CSKA and an even more impressive ratio at international level, scoring 7 in just 22 appearances.
Dzagoev may well go on to become the tournament's top scorer. History suggests that five goals is normally enough to win it and he'll have at least one more group game and a quarter-final match (Russia are almost certain to qualify at 1.16) to bag another couple. But his price looks about right.
An intriguing choice in the Top 4 goalscorer market is Cesc Fabregas. It now seems that he's a first-choice player for Spain rather than the first-choice to plug gaps. Even if he doesn't start as Spain's most advanced player for the remainder of the tournament, he's at least almost certain to start. In an attacking position, with one goal under his belt already and Spain tipped to go far, he looks a good option at around 6.05/1.