Without playing badly, inexperienced England fail to build on World Cup success in defeat against Spain

Three Lions left themselves with too much to do after failing to match their superior opponents

Gareth Southgate said on Friday that the most important thing for this England team now was to convince themselves that reaching the World Cup semi-final this summer was not a one-off, that they are a team who can compete with the best and should be aiming to beat them.

Here at Wembley, as England began their Nations League campaign, their post-World Cup life, they did not look like a team who had internalised that message. They did not play badly, they scored a beautiful goal and they continued to create chances for an equaliser right up until the very end. Had Danny Welbeck’s added-time equaliser been allowed to stand then of course the conversations overnight would be very different.

But ultimately England left themselves too much to do, and they should not have been relying on that late siege to try to scramble a point. Because for much of this game they did not look like they believed they were Spain’s equals. England did not play like a team who has recent experience of the sharpest end of international football, lacking the maturity to keep control of the game at the moments when it was in the balance. Even up against a Spain team in their own transitional phase, under a new coach, after a disastrous World Cup, adjusting to a spate of retirements, it was England who somehow looked provisional, like a work in progress. As if the success of the World Cup had not been banked and built upon in the way that everyone had hoped.

Because there was little wrong with the gameplan from England today, and anyone who saw them at the World Cup would recognise it from there. They were expansive and ambitious, getting the ball forwards quickly, trying to get Marcus Rashford in behind just as they had with Raheem Sterling in Russia. The wing-backs were pushed up, the two attacking midfielders were bombing on and Kane was dropping deep into space.

It was as good a plan as any for a country who wants to play good football without having a creative midfielder to pull the strings. If England had one of those then life would be very different, but Southgate has to make do with the players he has. But while it is difficult to find too much in Southgate’s plans, given how he wants to play, here the problems lay more with the execution.

Because the frustrating thing for England was that the goals that cost them the game were down to their own defensive sloppiness as much as Spain’s domination. England had taken the lead, remember, after just 11 minutes, with a goal that summed up what their approach was meant to look like: brave under pressure, precise in possession, incisive on the break. Luke Shaw’s assist and Marcus Rashford’s finish were impressive but so were Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane in getting the ball out to the left in the first place.

It was a frustrating night for England (Getty)

This would have been the moment to slow the game down, guarantee their lead, make sure that they could keep hold of their lead for enough time to dispirit Spain. That is what an experienced team would have done.

But this is not an experienced England team, not yet, and they beckoned Spain back into the game so quickly they looked almost embarrassed to have taken the lead in the first place. All it took was for Shaw to get beaten by Dani Carvajal and all of a sudden Spain were in. Even with the three centre-backs, in theory providing mobility and cover, no-one could stop Rodrigo from running in behind and pulling the ball back. No-one could stop Saul Niguez from popping up in the box and scoring.

That was bad enough but worse was to come when England conceded a needless free-kick and let in the second goal, from which they never really recovered. The initial foul was mindless and then Rodrigo was allowed to run in between Harry Kane and Joe Gomez to tap the ball in at the near post. It was a complete collapse in England’s set-piece marking, at a moment when the game was in the balance and all the little details had to be watertight.

In that sense it pointed to a lack of maturity, to let such a controllable moment as a defensive set-piece slip away from their control. Momentum had been lost and that belief in their right to compete had sapped out of England’s game. It was only in the final 15 minutes, and the long added time, that they came back into the game. But they did not have the precise execution the situation demanded, that detail-mastery that experience entails.