SIR LES ... Lescott is congratulated by Welbeck, skipper Gerrard and Johnson after his opener

The Manchester City defender was one of the star performers and gave the Three Lions the lead as they smothered and frustrated France in their Euro 2012 opener at the Donbass Arena.

While England excelled with a strong defensive performance, Lescott believes Roy Hodgson’s side looked composed and strong in midfield, even though Les Bleus saw far more of the ball.

Lescott, 29, said: “When you get an England team there will always be plenty of pride and passion — but we also looked good going forward and we can build on this.

“It is always nice to score and this was extra special. It is the sort of goal you dream about.

“It is also nice to keep clean sheets. But we had a gameplan and we are confident going into every game.

“We should be confident of getting a win in our next game.

“Our work ethic was important against France. Scott Parker and Steven Gerrard played really well and were solid.

“James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were as well.

“It was a really good collective performance. It was a really hard game to start off with.

“Now we are really confident. We were confident going into the game and if you don’t lose games, like this one, you are even better.

“No matter who we played, it was important we did not lose and it puts us in a good position going into the next game.”

Lescott struck in the 30th minute with a header before City team-mate Samir Nasri equalised nine minutes later.

Central defender Lescott, who was only starting because of Gary Cahill’s pre-tournament injury, added: “For the first 25 minutes we were the better team and after the goal we stepped back a bit and let them play.

“But, overall, we have to be pleased.

“On paper, you would look at it and say France is the hardest game but obviously Sweden are no mugs and Ukraine are the home nation.

“All games are going to be tough but if we play like we did in this match, I’m sure we’ll be equally hard opponents for them.”

England keeper Joe Hart was also frustrated at conceding a goal — especially one scored by his Etihad team-mate.

Hart said: “Samir is a clever player. I thought we dropped off a little bit from how we started, he hit it hard and it headed through a lot of people.

“It’s beat me, simple as that. It’s a good goal. We just have to concentrate on the good performance.

“We showed resilience, which you are always going to get.

“You can question the team all you want but you are always going to get belief and pride. People are proud to play for their country.

“And you get quality. People forget we are England — we’re a good side.

“For the first 25 minutes France weren’t ready for us. They weren’t ready for what we brought to the equation.

“But it’s hot out there. I won’t bore anyone with the excuses as both teams were tired and from countries not used to that heat and I thought we did well. We slugged it out when we needed to and got the result.

“We are moving in the right direction. We would like to have won, don’t get me wrong, but we got off to a good start and will move on from here.”

Three Lions skipper Steven Gerrard said: “We would have been delighted with a win but France have fantastic players and we caused them as many problem as they caused us.

“We’re satisfied with the performance but I said before the game that we wouldn’t get carried away, no matter what the result was.

“It was only going to be a platform. It’s great to get off the mark points-wise and now we need to follow it up with a win and get four points after playing two games.”

French boss Laurent Blanc had mixed feelings about the opening game draw and said: “We are satisfied — and frustrated.

“That’s the initial feeling. But the English will feel the same as us this evening.

“They were excellent for the first 20 minutes and we took a while to get into the game and, as ever, we were punished.

“But that actually helped us to get into the game and we reacted very well.

“We created a good chance with Alou Diarra’s header from the set-piece and were able to equaliser.

“We deserved that and in the second half we created chances.

“The fact it was very hot didn’t help it for the side that were attacking more and France attacked a lot more than England.

“We’re not entirely thrilled and not entirely disappointed.

“We played our game, albeit not exactly as we wanted to, and were happy not to lose the game. But we wouldn’t have deserved to lose.”