England captain Harry Kane noted that the 'Three Lions' demonstrated one of the strongest footballing levels in a long time, even despite the 3-2 home loss to world champions Spain in the Nations League on Friday.
Thomas Tuchel's team started the match poorly when Marc Guéhi gifted Lamine Yamal the first goal at Wembley Stadium. However, England managed to come back into the game and take the lead before halftime thanks to a brilliant counterattack, finished by Anthony Gordon's goal and Kane's header.
Later, Kane shot wide from a free-kick in the second half, which could have made the score 3-1, but Spain managed to respond, extending their unbeaten run to 39 matches with goals from Alejandro Baeña and Mikel Oyarzabal.
This match became a familiar example of what England lacked, having reached the semi-finals in four of the last five major tournaments but never winning the title since 1966. Kane told ITV: 'We reached a good level at the World Cup, but we couldn't play full 90 minutes. Today will probably be similar.' He continued: 'We had many good moments, so I believe this period (either before or after the break) was as good as we played a long time ago, and it is a standard we know we can achieve.'
Kane added that playing against the reigning world and European champions, they 'fought on equal terms, and on another day, we would certainly win this game.'
Thomas Tuchel, for his part, expressed regret over two defensive errors that cost the team the victory. Nico O'Reilly, like Manchester City teammate Guéhi, made a turnover deep in England's half while setting up Baeña's equalizer. Tuchel stated: 'Details are important at this level. It is important to use your chances, and it is important to minimize decisive errors. Both of these moments were not in our favour today.'
He concluded that 'the effort was there, the quality was there, the periods of play were very, very good, but today's result is not ideal.'