Roy Hodgson: 'Russia draw a bitter pill to swallow'

Roy Hodgson admitted Russia’s last-gasp equaliser was a bitter pill for his England team to swallow.

Vasili Berezutski's arching header two minutes into added time left the Three Lions shattered after Eric Dier’s free kick had looked to have won them the game.

Yet despite controlling the majority of the possession and creating the most chances, England failed to add to their tally and finish off Leonid Slutsky’s men.

However, Hodgson remains defiant his young squad will bounce back from the disappointment. He said: “I was satisfied with the performance. We looked very good at times during the course of the game. 

“I felt we deserved to win – it was a bitter blow and a bitter pill to swallow but if we can swallow it and take encouragement from the good things we did offensively and defensively then I shall be very hopeful going forward that the misfortune of tonight won’t happen again.

Eric Dier, right, celebrates his free-kick against Russia

“When you dominate the game as much as we did and play as well as we did and concede a goal two minutes into injury time of course it feels much more like a defeat than a draw.

“That’s always the case with last minute goals. They either give you a feeling of euphoria because you’ve scored it and it’s rescued the game or you concede it and it makes you feel like you’ve lost the game.

“But there were a lot of good things in our performance tonight it was unfortunately for us a very good goal they scored to equalise and we’ll have to accept that disappointment, digest it and move on but certainly there were a lot of things that happened out there tonight that gave me satisfaction.”

Hodgson decided to start Wayne Rooney in central midfield for the first time in his international career. 

And the England captain was one of his side's best performers on the night, alongside Dier and Dele Alli.

Rooney added: “We played well and had some good chances but didn’t take them. We went a goal up and then conceded late on so of course the lads are disappointed to not get the win but there were a lot of positives in there tonight."