Roy Hodgson thanked the 83,000 fans that cheered England to a 3-0 win over Peru in their final match at Wembley before the World Cup.
Goals from Daniel Sturridge, Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka handed the Three Lions a comfortable victory before they fly to Miami on Sunday for two final warm-up matches against Ecuador and Honduras next week.
And the England Manager was delighted with the reception his players received. Hodgson said: “The finest point of the evening was the crowd and the atmosphere.
England 3-0 Peru
International Match
Friday 30 May 2014
Wembley Stadium connected by EE
“Eighty-three thousand people - what a send-off. What a tremendous vote of confidence for these players from the English footballing public. That really pleased me. We’ve had a good couple of weeks training so it was nice to end it in this way.
“The most important thing for us was to come through it unscathed injury wise. We also wanted to get a victory – the more comfortable the better. It didn’t look like it was going to be that comfortable for a period in the first half when they got so many players back behind the ball and defended well.
“But as soon as Daniel got that fantastic goal, for me, the game was not in great doubt.”
The Liverpool striker was named the Vauxhall Man of the Match, and although Hodgson was pleased with the 24-year-old’s performance he preferred to focus on the collective.
Hodgson added: “I don’t want to talk about individuals. I’m excited about them all. I’ve got a good squad of players. There are very many talented players, many exciting players.
“It was really good tonight that Daniel could score that goal because every goal you score for England when you’re young is an important one. This one was particularly important because it was the goal that unlocked the game.
“I’m happy with him but I’m no more happy with him than I am with lots of other players out there.”
Hodgson admitted that he did not concern himself too much with preparing for Peru and said his whole focus has been on the World Cup.
But he knew what to expect from the South Americans and believes it was a very worthwhile exercise.
He said: “I’ve got to be honest – Peru hasn’t featured very strongly in terms of our preparation. It’s been purely and utterly focused on Brazil.
“We gave the players an idea of the shape of the Peru team and what sort of football they play. Everything was based around our shape, the way we were going to play and what we wanted to do.
“Peru gave me exactly the type of test I wanted. Many games we’ll play in Brazil, if we do well, will be of this nature because teams are good these days at getting a lot of players behind the ball, making sure it’s very hard for you to break through.”
