England lose to Spain in friendly

“This is one game where I don’t think we’ve been out-classed, We were in the game”.

Spain eventually broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute as Mario Gaspar collected a pass from Cesc Fabregas, before rifling the ball into the top corner.

However, there is a slightly different feeling around England’s trip to Alicante to face Spain, with the need to face higher-quality opposition ahead of Euro 2016, given the relative minnows that provided the “competition” in Roy Hodgson’s ideal qualifying campaign.

Rooney admitted England are in for a tough match on Friday but is confident they can secure a result.

The Three Lions could hardly get a kick then and after a hard start, they did at least settle and play with a degree of composure in the middle part of the match.

“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. Their squad was stronger in terms of depth today but I think it’s great Dele Alli and Eric Dier could come on and play”. “We’re monitoring it, we’re still working on it but it looks unlikely at this moment in time that he’ll be able to play tomorrow”.

Defender Ryan Bertrand, meanwhile, is focused on securing one of the places in the 23-man squad Hodgson will take to next year’s finals in France.

“That’s for the very simple reason that we’re looking at various combinations”.

“We conceded the second goal with Smalling limping, so we didn’t have the best of luck in those areas”.

“The most important thing to do now, when you haven’t lost for a long time and you get a defeat, if you’re not careful it can really dent your confidence”, he told reporters.

Spain controlled possession and had most of the significant scoring chances throughout the match at the Jose Rico Perez Stadium. You wonder whether Michael Carrick, who may be out for weeks with suspected ligament damage, will surface in an worldwide shirt again after his struggle to make any contribution to the counter-attacking game Hodgson planned in Alicante. “We’re sticking together. We win and lose together and we’re going to the tournament the best prepared we can be, as a team, as England, and we’re going to try and win it”. That lack of fluency provided England with a sight of goal when a few sloppy passing gave possession to Fabian Delph, who stung the palms of Iker Casillas.