England controlled their opening Euro 2016 game against Russia but conceded an injury time equaliser. Having received plenty of criticism ahead of the game, Wayne Rooney put in a man of the match performance, only to be taken off with over 10 minutes left to play.

Harry Kane, who had a poor game, was allowed to stay on the field for the full 90 minutes, while Raheem Sterling, who was just as bad, was taken off just three minutes to play. Sterling’s replacement, James Milner, was at fault in the lead up to the goal.

England fans were left wondering how Jamie Vardy or Marcus Rashford didn’t get on the pitch, when their pace could have stretched Russia. Instead, Hodgson went for a defensive approach and paid the price. After the 1-1 draw, he explained his decision to take off Rooney.

I thought he had a good game, but was tiring. Quite a lot of players out there were tiring because, although it wasn’t baking hot, there was quite a humid atmosphere which saps the strength of the players. We just thought, with the control we had in the game and Wilshere on the bench, we could have the luxury of taking Wayne off the field and that Jack would do a similar job. I think that’s exactly what happened.

Always afterwards you can look and think ‘Could we have used more subs? Could we have done a bit more?’ But we didn’t honestly believe we were in great difficulties during that time and we thought we’d see the game out 1-0. If anything, we replaced Raheem Sterling, who had worked very hard, with James Milner with a view perhaps to seeing the game out, but were unlucky to concede the late goal.