Euro 2016: Roy Hodgson happy with England performance despite late sucker punch
Three Lions boss believes his side 'dominated' Russia but were undone after switching off at the death
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ROY HODGSON was disappointed to see his young Lions concede late against Russia - but backed them to hit back against Wales.
England looked on course to record a fine victory after dominating in Marseille, only for Vasili Berezutski to net in added time.
It was a cruel blow after the young Lions had dominated for large periods - but ultimately were wasteful in front of goal and only scored through a superb freekick from Eric Dier.
Hodgson said: "When you dominate and concede in injury time it feels like a defeat. There are a lot of good things in our performance and we'll have to accept and digest this disappointment.
"But there were a lot of things that gave me satisfaction.
"Rooney played well. First half especially was really good. We didn't start the second well though, we were getting pegged back by a lot of long balls.
"I was satisfied with the formation, personally I do believe that we deserved to win."
England looked to have the win secured through Dier's second international goal, a rasping free-kick into the top corner - and the young Spurs man was gutted to lose the three points late on.
He said: “We are very disappointed. We played very well. It had nothing to do with inexperience. We just didn’t play it out in the right way.
“We didn’t lose, though, it’s just disappointing we didn’t see it out.
“We controlled the game, pressed from the back, countered and had it all — except seeing it out at the end.”
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Wayne Rooney played the game in midfield but was substituted with a little over 15 minutes to play.
The skipper said: "I think we played well, had good chances but didn't take them.
"Of course the lads are disappointed but there's a lot of positive. The performance was worthy of the three points.
"The big lad up front is going to win headers and unfortunately for us they got the goal from it.
"We have to move on."
Until unlikely hero Dier’s moment of magic, England had been frustrated by a resolute Russia and done everything but score.
Skipper Wayne Rooney was somehow denied a breakthrough three minutes earlier when keeper Igor Akinfeev kept out his 18-yard drive with a world-class save.
SunSport columnist and ITV pundit Ian Wright said: “I’m gutted for the guys — we deserved to win.”
Ex-England striker Peter Crouch said: “This was really hard to take.”
Keeper Joe Hart said: “It was a good performance but a good performance is a win in tournament football.
“We played well and deserved to win but fair play to Russia, they stayed in the game and scored.
“We are going to build on it and will get better. There are a lot of positives — and that’s what we have to draw on.”