Hodgson: England never out of the game
After a comeback victory over Germany, England manager Roy Hodgson praised his side's fighting spirit.
England manager Roy Hodgson says his players "were never out of the game" as they fought back from two goals down to beat world champion Germany 3-2 in Berlin.
Goals from Toni Kroos and Mario Gomez had given Joachim Low's side a cushion, with the former's strike coming as goalkeeper Jack Butland — subsequently replaced by Fraser Forster — struggled with an injury.
But England showed tremendous spirit to turn things around.
Harry Kane set the ball rolling before Jamie Vardy enjoyed a moment of magic as he flicked a Nathaniel Clyne cross beyond Manuel Neuer to restore parity with his first England goal.
It was Eric Dier who snatched the victory with a header in stoppage-time — also netting his maiden goal in an England shirt.
"It was a good follow-up from our performance against France [2-0 win], albeit it was five or six months ago," Hodgson said. "I think we carried on from where we left off.
"I thought at half-time it was very unjust that we came in at 1-0 down, especially seeing as our goalkeeper was injured and was obviously hampered in trying to save the shot from Kroos.
"And then when we went 2-0 down I thought it was even more unfair because we were never out of the game and we were creating the better chances.
"But to come back and score three goals it was a tremendous performance from the players. They've got to take enormous credit and enormous heart from it."
