Loyal: Roy Hodgson defended his players

‘Which team deserves to win a game is a matter of debate. I thought we put up a very good effort and had we won we wouldn’t have been apologising for it.

‘We never played for penalties. Our defending was resilient. Whether we did enough to win is a matter of opinion. We were unlucky because we lost the powerhouse of our team — Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker — from midway through the second half.

Scott felt his achilles and Steven was fighting off cramp in his hip and his calf. These things happen, I suppose. We’ve had three very tough games before this one. We held on to give ourselves a chance but we couldn’t take it.

‘At least we go away unbeaten during normal time. But once again we go home beaten because we lost a penalty shootout which, quite frankly, isn’t a game of football.’

England have lost six out of seven shootouts and captain Steven Gerrard, who scored from the spot last night, said: ‘It is heart-breaking, my feelings are exactly the same as  previous tournaments.

« Previous12345Next »