England Manager Has No Sympathy For Wales
Roy Hodgson has insisted he does not feel sorry for his opponents as he basked in the joy of England's injury-time victory over Wales at Euro 2016.
Gareth Bale had given Wales the lead in the first half of Thursday's Group B clash in Lens, but Jamie Vardy equalised 11 minutes after the interval before fellow substitute Daniel Sturridge struck in the dying moments to send England top of the group.
England were denied victory by an added-time goal for Russia in their opening Euro 2016 fixture - and Hodgson had little sympathy for opposing boss Chris Coleman, who described it as the lowest moment of his career.
"It is amazing," he said. "We played so well against Russia and conceded in the 93rd minute. Today we worked so hard in the second half and pushed and pushed and then scored in the 92nd minute, I suppose it shows things do even out, but it is rare to see them even out in the space of two games.
"If I had been watching from afar and not been with England and watching Wales play some other opponent I would have felt very sorry for them. But they will have to excuse me not feeling sorry for them because I want to be pleased with ourselves.
"Had we not conceded that very late goal to Russia to rob us of what we thought would be a very deserved victory I would probably have been slightly less ecstatic."
Both of England's goals came from half-time substitutes and Hodgson laughed when asked if was the greatest double change of his career.
But he insisted he needs the likes of Vardy, Sturridge and Marcus Rashford to offer competition to Harry Kane up front. "Substitutions are going to play a major part at this tournament," he explained.
"The games come thick and fast and each team has 23 players. In those 23 players will be a lot of players who feel hard done by when they are not selected and feel maybe they should have been selected.
"As the manager or coach, when selecting the team, it's hard to look beyond them. I think it's going to be a feature of the tournament.
"Watching France play Albania last night, I think it was a similar situation when Pogba and Griezmann came on the field. That helped the French to get the victory they thought they might be denied.
"Vardy obviously has a lot of confidence and I had no hesitation in putting him on the field of play at half-time.
"Harry was looking a little bit tired, I thought, during the course of the first half. He worked very hard against Russia and has had a long season, so it was great we had somebody like Jamie Vardy to step into his shoes.
"It was also good, in my opinion, we had players like Marcus Rashford and, in particular, Daniel Sturridge, to come onto the field and give us something different when we need a goal or we need to ask questions of a packed defence."
