Hodgson: Spain punished us – but England will learn

Roy Hodgson: Aware of Drinkwater

Roy Hodgson: Aware of Drinkwater

Roy Hodgson has admitted England’s poor ball retention was punished by Spain  – but insists his side will “learn lessons” from their 2-0 defeat.

Fabian Delph was guilty of giving the ball away on several occasions and Raheem Sterling surrendered the ball in the build up to Mario’s stunning opener.

“We always knew it would be a tough ask to defend against Spain,” the England manager said.

“We knew how good they are at keeping the ball and moving it around and we knew we would have to work hard to keep them at bay.

“Strangely the (first) goal we conceded was a Spanish counter-attack when we had good possession.

“By giving the ball away we gave them the opportunity to counter-attack against us and score a spectacular goal.

“We have to learn our lesson from it and remember when we play teams of this quality you can’t afford to make any mistakes because you’re going to get punished.

“We didn’t pass the ball as well as we would have liked.

“We think we can do better in possession and we’ve got players who can be more dangerous in attacking situations.”

 

Twelve minutes after Mario volleyed Spain ahead, Cazorla wrapped up the win for the hosts with a curling shot that went in off a post.

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque felt England played reasonably well.

He said: “I think we have been a bit lucky and we have given a bit more than the England team at the moment.

“This is a good win for Spain. We could say this was a prestige result against an England team who were very strong and very threatening every time they crossed over the line into our half of the pitch.

“We defended well and were strong against a team who were, once again, were very strong and very threatening.”