Fabregas hails Spain improvements

However, Hodgson’s men failed to cope with Spain’s composure on the ball before a stunning opener from Mario Gaspar and Santi Cazorla’s cool finish handed the hosts victory in the final 20 minutes.

“For 70 minutes we were well in the game but goals change games, it was a special goal and it opened it up”. We’re not going to win every game.

England had the game arranged as part of a series of friendlies to prepare for Euro 2016, the first of which was Friday night’s 2-0 defeat against Spain in Alicante.

The 22-year-old, who is expected to feature in Tuesday’s game with France at Wembley, said: “People need to stay patient”.

“Michael has got a severely twisted ankle which normally means ligament damage”, Hodgson said after England’s game against Spain. “We have to learn a lesson from it, and remember that playing against teams of this quality, you can not afford to make any technical mistakes in wrong areas, as you’ll get punished”.

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

“And of course we want to be a bit careful with Fabian Delph because it was tough for him out there (against Spain) after the absence he has had from football for so long”.

Spain still come out top having averaged 2.4 points per game in their matches since Hodgson took charge of England back in May 2012.

Spain lost Thiago to injury in the 26th minute but they were not inconvenienced too much with Arsenal midfielder Cazorla summoned from the bench by Del Bosque.

The Manchester City keeper did well moments later as he scampered from his line to prevent Mata doubling Spain’s advantage. Diego Costa, in poor form for Chelsea and with just one goal since declaring his allegiance to Spain, continued his struggles with his adopted nation, while forward partner Paco Alcacer fared little better.

Cahill said: “He’s a leader, he’s captain and a top player so he represents what we’re all about as a country”. But there’s no reason for anyone to lose any sort of confidence because the performance levels and the way we have approached the qualifying campaign and playing since the World Cup has been positive.

Jamie Vardy’s participation is in doubt after he missed Friday’s friendly through injury.