Chris Smalling says England were defensively solid for much of the game against Spain, but were undone by a moment of magic.
The Manchester United defender was winning his 20th cap for the Three Lions as they faced the current European Champions in Alicante.
Goals from Mario Gaspar and Santi Cazorla in the final 20 minutes left the 25-year-old disappointed after England had managed to restrict Spain's chances.
Spain 2-0 England
International match
Estadio Jose Rico Perez, Alicante
Friday 13 November 2015
And Smalling believes it was a case of missed opportunities that prevented Roy Hodgson's men from extending their 15-game unbeaten run.
"For the first 60 minutes we were quite defensively sound as a team and we knew we would get chances on the counter-attack," Smalling told FATV after the game.
"I think we had the better of the chances.
"We weren’t clinical enough. We had a lot of chances around the edge of the box, but if you don’t take your chances against good teams, then you get punished."
He continued: "We thought it was heading for a 1-0 game, 2-0 flatters them, but it was a great goal [from Gaspar] – I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have expected a finish like that.
"We limited them to chances and we knew they would have a lot of possession, so we had to wait for our chances to push up and attack.
"Defensively, bar the final 20 minutes, we were quite solid as a team."
Having come through their Euro 2016 qualification campaign with a 100 per cent record, Hodgson was keen for his team to face the types of challenges they will meet in France next summer.
Spain had the lion's share of possession, which meant the visitors were playing on the counter-attack, something they have not been used to of late.
Smalling admits it was one of England's hardest encounters since the World Cup in Bazil.
"It was definitely a tough test, this is one of the best – if not the best – team that we have played," he said. "During this last year or two this is definitely one of the toughest we’ve had.
"It's just disappointing after working so hard for so much of the game to then be caught by a goal like that.
"Then we're chasing the game and they get the second, but it does flatter them."
Smalling added: "We'll assess this, some of the good points and where we could have done better.
"You often learn more from your defeats than you do your victories, so we'll try and take the positives out of it."
