ContinueEngland captain, Steven Gerrard, saw red last night as a lacklustre England were saved late on by a Frank Lampard penalty and the Three Lions boss, Roy Hodgson, is confident England will still qualify.
Hodgson told the BBC in a post match interview, "I was very pleased with many of the aspects of the play tonight. I leave Wembley a lot more confident that we have a group of players who will take this England team to Rio."
The former Fulham manager had seen five of his initial 23 man squad withdraw through injury. This lead him to call up uncapped players to experience being around an England squad. When it was announced Southampton midfielder, Adam Lallana, Liverpool winger, Raheem Stirling and Tottenham midfielder, Jake Livermore were to join up with the squad on Monday afternoon, Hodgson said that none would take part in the game and the call up was to let them know that he was aware of their quality.
However, this turned into a night where England needed a full bench of experience as they struggled to cope with a confident Ukraine, who went ahead with a superb goal from the impressive, Yevgeni Konoplienka.
Ukraine carried on dominating the possession although Manchester United midfielder, Tom Cleverley, had three great chances in the first half to level the scores with the best coming from a Jermaine Defoe header back across the goal only for Cleverley to hit it straight at the Ukraine goalkeeper, Pyatov, when it looked easier to score.
England pressed as the second half began but could not find a way back into the game and when substitute Danny Welbeck hit the post from inside the box it looked like it would be a frustrating night for the hosts.
In the 87th minute, Welbeck again had the ball in the box and this time he showed composure to lift the ball past the on coming defend and his trailing arm knocked the ball out of his path. Penalty to England. Frank Lampard picked the ball up confidently and smashed it passed Pyatov. The Chelsea midfielder never seems to miss in the pressure situations, until you get to the knockout stages of an international competition anyway.
Hodgson thought that it was a better point than many people would suggest in the aftermath, "I suppose it is two points dropped because you want to win your home games. But the fact is we played against a good Ukraine team. They had the benefit of a super goal that put them on the front foot which meant our task became harder."
On the otherhand, the England boss was not too impressed with the performance of referee Cuneyt Cakir, who sent off England captain, Steven Gerrard, "We didn't have a lot of help out there tonight, we had five bookings and a sending off, which is enormous, considering the way we played. I hardly saw a foul in the game.”
Gerrard, who has not been sent off during his 98 England caps, will now miss England's home game next month against San Marino.
