“We didn’t pass the ball as well as we would have liked”, he said. We will liaise with the French federation over the weekend.
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Spain fullback Mario Gaspar scored with a stunning volley and Santi Cazorla added a late goal as the European champions enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 win over England in a friendly between the continental heavyweights last night.
Once again, after dominating a feeble qualifying group for the Euros, England were made to look inadequate and timid by the first decent team they have played since the ignominious exit from the World Cup past year.
Asked whether his men could close that gap, Hodgson he would have a go once his big players recover from injury: “We have to see”. It was a poor goal to concede on a counter-attack for us. We gave the ball away and got punished by a fantastic goal and of course we were losing players in midfield around that time. “You have to give Spain credit for the quality of their pressure”.
Hodgson said: “We played against a very good team”.
Vicente del Bosque felt Spain’s comfortable 2-0 win over England on Friday was a vindication of the team’s playing style.
The England boss told his postgame news conference that it was early to say yet the full extent of Carrick’s problem, but the initial prognosis was not good and his squad was already threadbare due to other injury concerns.
Depending on the veracity of the injury the recovery time for an ankle ligament damage usually varies from a few weeks to a few months. “But we wont know until the X-ray or scan tomorrow”.
England coach Roy Hodgson brought captain Wayne Rooney on for the final quarter of an hour, the Manchester United forward winning his 108th cap to draw level with Bobby Moore in fourth on the appearances list. “I backed him in a very hard time. We did not do that”.
Iker Casillas ” preferred to David De Gea in goal for Spain ” gathered Fabian Delph’s drive at the second attempt and there was further encouragement for England on the stroke of half-time when Ryan Bertrand, Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana combined well for Harry Kane to scuff his shot.
“If you’re asking, ‘Are we going to be able to match them in that unbelievably clever passing game?’ Perhaps we can’t”. Perhaps we can’t. But we don’t need to do that.
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England face France in the second of their two global friendlies during the break next week, and Hodgson will hope for an improved performance and result as his side continue to look for a confidence boost against one of their main rivals next summer.
