England 1, Holland 2; Three Lions’ bubble burst as Hodgson rues failure to build on Germany win
England manager Roy Hodgson admits his team have lost valuable momentum for the European Championship after Holland brought them back down to earth last night.
Striker Jamie Vardy enhanced his claims for a place at this summer’s tournament by opening the scoring in the last match before Hodgson names his 23-man squad in May.
But Holland gave much-changed England a second-half reality check, Vincent Janssen’s penalty levelling before an equally contentious winner from Luciano Narsingh.
Hodgson questioned the officials over both goals but conceded that his team’s defeat and limp display had failed to deliver on the promise of Saturday’s win in Germany.
“I was more disappointed we didn’t reach the same level of intensity and creativity as we did on Saturday, and our domination of the ball didn’t lead to enough chances,” he said.
“It would have been nice had the referee given a foul for the second goal, but l still wouldn’t have been particularly happy because I was hoping for a better performance.
“I gave a lot of different players a chance to play. Hopefully that might be to my advantage in the future when I’m thinking about making decisions.
“At the moment, I’m just bitterly disappointed that I’m sitting here having lost a home game after such a good performance on Saturday, because it really is a high followed by a low.”
An England team featuring eight changes from Berlin proved unable to end a 20-year wait for victory over the Dutch, who have failed to qualify for Euro 2016. If Saturday’s revelatory comeback win over world champions Germany had England fans in dreamland, then this match was more of a deep slumber in the opening stages.
A 14th-minute standing ovation for late Oranje star Johan Cruyff did most to animate a sold-out Wembley as the visitors muted the hosts and posed greater attacking threat.
England flickered into life after half an hour, Vardy slicing high and wide and Daniel Sturridge seeing a shot blocked, both after dangerous raids down the left from Danny Rose.
And Rose’s fellow full-back Kyle Walker was the provider when Vardy notched the opener for his second international goal – and a second in as many games – in the 41st minute.
Sturridge’s canny dummy on the edge of the box made space for Adam Lallana, who released Walker on the overlap to lay on the simplest of finishes for the Leicester striker.
Holland levelled just five minutes after half-time, Janssen emphatically despatching a spot-kick after Rose had been strictly penalised when Narsingh’s cross hit his arm.
There was a whiff of controversy about the winner, too, England players protesting long and loud after Janssen barged sub Phil Jagielka aside to tee up Narsingh at the far post.