KEIR RADNEDGE in MARSEILLE: England manager Roy Hodgson insisted his players would bounce back quickly from the bitter disappointment of being held 1-1 by Russia in their opening group game at Euro 2016.

England dominated the match and should have had the three points wrapped ip by half-time. Instead they struck only late through an Eric Dier free kick and conceded an equaliser to Vasili Berezutski in the second minute of stoppage time.

Hodgson said: “To say we’re disappointed would be an understatement. We were that close to a deserved victory and to lose it with one min of injury time remaining was a tough pill to swallow.

“But one doesn’t have a divine right not to concede a goal at any stage of the game. It won’t take us long to get over it and we’ll start tomorrow preparing for the next game. Hopefully we’ll be able to put the memory of this last-minute goal behind us.”

“We were good in the first 45 minutes and the last 30 but not for the first 15 of the second half for some reason.”

Hodgson praised Tottenham’s Dier for his goal direct from a free kick and said the strike was not a surprse “because we see him practising in training.”

Dier, an admitted admirer of David Beckham’s free kick technique, described the goal as “one of the best moments I’ve had in football.” But he added: “Obviously it would have been more important had we won. So I’m happy for it but disappointed we could not see the game it out.”

Russian manager Leonid Slutsky praised his players for “scrapping until the end.”

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