Out: Wayne Rooney (right) will miss England's first two matches

Hodgson also accepted that there was plenty of room for improvement, not least in midfield where England’s passing was poor. Retaining possession, particularly in the second half, proved difficult for England, as it so often does. Hodgson hopes that was merely a touch of first-night nerves.

'The players may have been anxious to impress me, to show what they can do,’ he said. ‘I’m not prepared to consider that an issue at the moment. Obviously if it  continues, and we keep losing the ball when we have good opportunities to play it forward, I might start getting worried. But we have the quality of players for that not to be an issue. You saw that in the first half with Gerrard and Parker there.’

How he intends to organise his midfield is also becoming clear. It will be Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker, with Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry — should the latter recover from his groin problem — travelling to Poland and Ukraine as understudies.

‘We have to get in between the lines a little bit better,’ said Hodgson in explaining where he will be looking for improvement against Belgium on Saturday. ‘We have to be more positive when we get a chance to play the ball in between those lines. I’m hoping we will get our wide midfielders  helping the midfield players out in that area, and feeding the ball into Ashley Young. On the few occasions we did it we looked good.’

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