England 2 Wales 1: Roy Hodgson 'always' planned Sturridge and Vardy subs, but was 'pushed' to change game

1/29
Press Association16 June 2016

Roy Hodgson was delighted with England's desire to fight for a 2-1 win against Wales, though admits changes he was 'pushed' into making changes earlier than he would have liked.

Hodgson replaced Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling at half-time with England behind after Gareth Bale’s 42nd minute free-kick beat Joe Hart all to easily.

Vardy equalised and were rewarded for pushing forward in the dying moments as Sturridge netted in the 91st minute to put England top of Group B and on course for a place in the last 16.

While Hodgson says he would not have initially planned on two half-time substitutions, the Three Lions boss says his side deserved their luck in Lens.

"It's amazing, to play so well against Russia and lose a 90th-minute goal, and today we pushed and pushed and it takes until the 92nd minute for us to get our goal," he said.

"They say things even themselves out, but rarely in the space of two games.

"If I had been watching from afar I'd feel sorry for Wales. But I'm pleased for ourselves. It was a dominant second-half display and it took a lot of good defending to keep us out.

"We go home happy but Chris Coleman won't be disappointed with their performance."

Hodgson named an unchanged starting line-up from the Russia draw but insisted he always planned to bring on Vardy and Sturridge at some stage, although perhaps not as early as half-time.

"We thought a lot about what the starting XI would be but I didn't want to start breaking eggs with a big stick, I wanted to keep one or two up our sleeves.

"But the changes were pushed onto me maybe a bit early, although it was always in our mind to get Vardy and Sturridge on the field."

Wales boss Coleman admitted opposite number Hodgson's half-time changes made all the difference.

Euro 2016: England vs Wales In Pictures

1/47

"A point would have been fantastic, but they are a very strong team and congratulations to Roy for making some good substitutions," he said.

"We knew we would have to ride our luck a bit and I thought we did that and we looked quite strong even though they had a lot of possession, so the two goals we gave away were disappointing.

"With 60 seconds remaining, to give up the point that we had worked so hard for was disappointing and the players are gutted.

"But we have to put it to bed and move on. For me this was the middle game of three and we have to show a reaction against a tough Russian team. It's still all to play for.

"When you are bringing on the likes of Vardy and Sturridge, these are top players. We knew we would be up against it.

"But it was a good British derby. We gave them a good game and pushed them until the last minute."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in