England vs Russia: Last-gasp equaliser a ‘tough pill to swallow’ for Roy Hodgson

England 1 Russia 1: Failure to hold onto the victory has left England needing to defeat Wales

There is much for Roy Hodgson to ponder (Getty)

Roy Hodgson insisted England were denied a deserved victory against Russia in Marseille, claiming that Vasili Berezutski’s stoppage time equaliser was a ‘tough pill to swallow’ at the end of the Group B opener.

Eric Dier’s 73rd minute free-kick had given Hodgson’s team a 1-0 lead in Stade Velodrome, but Berezutski’s late header denied England their first opening game win at the European Championships at the ninth attempt.

Failure to hold onto the victory has left England needing to defeat Wales in Lens on Thursday to retain control of their qualification hopes, but Hodgson insisted there were enough positives from the game against the Russians for his team to go forward with confidence.

“To say we're bitterly disappointed would be an understatement,” Hodgson said. “To get that close to a victory which would have been deserved, then to lose it with one minute of injury-time to go, it's a tough pill to swallow.

“But that's football. One doesn't have a divine right to win any game. It doesn't make it any easier for me to accept, but it won't take us long to get over it.

“When we analyse the game, and start preparing for the next game, there'll be a lot of things from tonight's game that we will want to take forward and hopefully we'll be able to put the memory of that last minute goal behind us.”

Dier, the Tottenham holding midfielder, surprisingly stepped up for the free-kick which gave England the lead in the closing stages of the game.

But Hodgson insisted he had no doubts over Dier’s ability to hit the target with his set-piece.

“The wonder free-kick of Eric’ss, which I know he can do because we see it in training, was because we had so much possession in their half of the field and were causing them problems.

“We had a good chance for Wayne Rooney and a good chance from Harry Kane, so Eric’s effort was third time lucky.”

Hodgson, meanwhile, defended his decision to alter England’s system to accommodate Rooney in midfield by claiming the formation had been well practised and devised over a lengthy period of time.

“We've been playing this system if you take the successful period we've had with two defeats in over 20 games,” Hodgson said. “We've been using the system with three front players or one with two in an arrow-like situation.

“There have been others where we've used other systems, the diamond system.

“The team depends upon how you see individuals you are working with, and how you build a team to make best use of their qualities.”

“But I thought Wayne had a good game. I thought he was tiring, like a lot of players out there. It wasn't baking hot, but it was a humid atmosphere sapping players' strength.”

England goalkeeper Joe Hart, who had been largely untroubled prior to Russia’s late equaliser, insisted that the team can bounce back against Wales in Lens.

"We've got a game on Thursday and we'll look to win that one,” Hart said. “There's loads of good stuff from tonight, so if we continue like we did tonight, scoring a few more goals, we have set ourselves up nicely.

“It's unfortunate, we would have loved to have won but we haven't. That's the reality.

“We would have loved won 5-0 but we got a good performance, a team of players who were in good form. We will move forward and look to win the game on Thursday.”