Marseille, June 12 (IANS) England chief coach Roy Hodgson has said they were "bitterly disappointed" after Russia scored during injury time to force a 1-1 draw in a hard-fought Group B clash at the Euro 2016 football championship here.
England on Friday showcased superb attacking prowess to dominate proceedings throughout the game at the Stade Velodrome.
But most of their attacks came to nought against the Russian defensive wall before Eric Dier (73rd minute) placed a beautiful curling free-kick into the top left corner to give England the lead.
But the Russians scored during injury time of the second half. Vasili Berezutski (90+2) rose above the England defence to head a cross in at the far post for the equalising goal, leaving the Englishmen frustrated.
"I have the same emotions as the players. To say we are bitterly disappointed would be an understatement. We were that close to a deserved victory and to lose it with one minute of injury time remaining is a tough pill to swallow, but that happens in football," Hodgson told uefa.com after the match on Saturday.
"When we analyse the game tomorrow there'll be a lot of things we will want to take forward and hopefully we'll be able to put the memory of this last-minute goal behind us."
Enland's goal-scorer Dier echoed Hodgson's sentiments.
"It's disappointing because we were so close to a win in our first game. I thought it would have been well deserved," he said.
"Our emotions went from a high to a low pretty quickly, but we have more games to look forward to and have to pick ourselves up."
Even though the 21-year-old was pleased with the goal, the Tottenham Hotspur player was disappointed with the draw.
"It is one of the best moments I've had in football, a fantastic moment, and to celebrate with our fans who were fantastic around the stadium," he said.
"I would have taken a win, though, with someone else scoring."
--IANS
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