Lithuania 0 England 3: Roy Hodgson looks ahead to Euro 2016 after perfect qualification

'In tournaments matches are cup finals, one-off games. There are no guarantees,' he said

England manager Roy Hodgson looks on in Vilnius (Getty Images)

In his moment of triumph Roy Hodgson revealed the wound from England’s premature World Cup 2014 exit remains sore. After watching his team complete a perfect European Championships qualification campaign, the 3-0 win in Vilnius making it ten wins from ten games, Hodgson said he was still coming to terms with the failure in Brazil - but hoped it would prove of benefit at Euro 2016.

“It's very hard to put in words the dejection and disappointment you feel after working hard and preparing for a World Cup as we did, and then to go out after two games. I still don't have the words to describe my feelings. It could be an experience which serves in the future, because we never want it to happen again.

“In tournaments matches are cup finals, one-off games.There are no guarantees you can ever give except prepare properly and hope you get the players you want on the field at the right moment.”

Hodgson said despite England’s bad World Cup he believed they would qualify for France next summer in style and had targeted an unbeaten campaign, albeit not ten wins. ”It was a big goal to set – perhaps too big in some respects – but something in me said ‘they are good players here, and we're not dependent upon 11. If we play well, with focus and continue to try and get better, we could go through unbeaten’. But qualification was the main thing. I would have been happy with six wins and four draws.”

Most pleasing for Hodgson has been the development of a larger pool of potential England players. This was arguably a shadow XI but were still easy winners. “I'm very pleased,” said Hodgson. “I was pleased with the victory and the performance. From the offset we showed our intentions and were very dominant from the first minute. It doesn't hurt when you win matches, and it's a nice feeling to have played 10 matches and showed the quality of football and concentration to win them.”

“A lot of players were missing tonight. Being in a comfortable position allowed me to give a few other guys a chance and give others a rest. We've tried in this campaign to make up a bit that some players have a tough schedule by not always bashing the same people and having the confidence in some players to give them a chance on the field. They didn't let us down. I'm not sure those who weren't here would have done a better job tonight.”

"We will use the upcoming friendlies [against Spain and France] to learn, to see where we are. If we concentrate and play properly we can do well. It would have been a surprise if we had not qualified. But the upcoming friendlies are better, stronger opposition sides. We'll see how we deal with that."

Stand-in captain Phil Jagielka said: “The gameplan from day one was to win all 10 games and we have done it. We have good youth coming through and hopefully if we can nurture it we could have something special. We have chose some really tough friendlies. It will be hard games but we will try to prove ourselves.”

“We are very excited about going to France,” added Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. “We have belief in this squad.”

The Lithuanian manager, Igoris Pankratjevas, surprised local journalists when he resigned after the match. “Everything has its ending,” he said. “This is the end of the qualifying cycle and my job. I'm resigning from the team. I want to thank everyone for supporting me and the team. Goodbye." With that he left the room.