It has been reported that Manchester United defender Chris Smalling is adamant England are competitive with the world’s leading nations.
England were outclassed by Spain on Friday.
But Smalling says: “For the first 60 minutes we were quite defensively sound as a team and we knew we would get chances on the counter-attack.
“I think we had the better of the chances but 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 added: “We thought it was heading for a 1-0 game, 2-0 flatters them, but it was a great goal – I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have expected to see a finish like that.
“We limited their chances and we knew they would have a lot of possession, so we had to wait for our chances.
“Defensively, bar the final 20 minutes, we were quite solid as a team.
“You often learn more from your defeats than you do from your victories.”