England 2 France 0: Roy Hodgson proud of his players after 'poignant occasion'
The England manager praised players and fans for their part in remembering the victims of Paris' recent terror attacks
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Your support makes all the difference.Roy Hodgson said he was proud of his players, England’s fans, the Football Association, and all their French equivalents for the manner in which the Paris tragedy was marked at Wembley last night, and the way a credible football match, won 2-0 by England, was subsequently played.
“I thought it was a very poignant occasion,” said Hodgson of the remembrance service before kick-off. “It was everything I expected it to be the way the FA and French federation organised it. All the things we wanted to achieved were achieved in that moment.
“It was quite incredible to have 70,000 people here, a great crowd. They played their part respecting the ceremony. We in England can be rightly proud we were able to put this event on. It was not us pushing the French to play, they wanted to do it.”
“Then people have to put that aside and play a game of football. Once the whistle blows it becomes about the game of football. That turned out very well for us. The players coped with the occasion very well.”
Hodgson added England knew about events in Hannover, where the Germany-Netherlands game was cancelled at late notice due to a bomb threat, but said: ”We had faith in the security arrangements here.”
Dele Alli scored England’s first goal, and began the move for the second, scored by Wayne Rooney, and Hodgson hailed his performance as ‘close to faultless’. Hodgson added of the Tottenham youngster, who had not even played in the Premier League prior to this season: “I did not at any moment think he was anything other than top class. It is amazing at that age, and with no previous experience for England, apart from brief substitute appearances.
“He will certainly get a lot of praise, but he deserves a lot of praise. He was a bold choice but I was not surprised how he played as I have seen him do it for Tottenham and would not have picked him if I did not think he could do it for England.”
Alli, he added was one of several players “in midfield and up front where we are missing a lot of players” who can say to me, ‘you might have some big names missing but you don’t have to worry because are here’. That is nice for me and the country to know.
“I thought they played very well, the first half in particular as good as I have seen here for a while. They played with a lot of authority and composure, the movement was good and we defended well when they had the ball.
“In Spain [on Friday] I thought we defended extremely well and looked dangerous on the counter-attack, albeit we lost in the end. Tonight we faced a different type of opponent and we handled it very well.”
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