England coach, Gareth Southgate, has said that his team struggled to contain the Super Eagles’ halftime tactical switch.
The Super Eagles and the Three Lions traded tackles at Wembley Stadium on Saturday with the home side winning 2-1 in the friendly game.
England was 2-0 up at first half with goals from Gary Cahill and Harry Kane.
The second half saw coach Gernot Rohr make some changes which saw a better response from his team and they reduced the deficit through Alex Iwobi’s goal.
In his post-match press conference on English Football Association’s official website, Southgate described the game as a good test for his team going to the World Cup.
He said, “I think we played really well, with the ball especially.
“We created a lot of good chances, far more than in recent games. I was really pleased with that.
“We were deservedly a couple of goals to the good at half time.
“In the period leading up to their goal they changed the system and it took a little while to work out how to deal with that.
“Once we did that, we managed the game pretty well but there was a six or seven-minute period where we didn’t adjust and it was decent exercise for us although we wanted it to be a little bit more comfortable.”
Southgate also praised his front players for their performance.
“I thought he [Raheem Sterling] played well. I thought the front four – some of the movement and inter-play – we looked a threat.
“I thought Dele [Alli] and Jesse [Lingard] made great unselfish runs from midfield and as I say, slightly better decision making in the final third we would’ve scored even more.”
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