England manager Roy Hodgson was pleased with his side’s reaction after a poor first half display as the Three Lions came back to draw 1-1 against Italy at the Juventus Stadium on Tuesday night in an international friendly.
Graziano Pelle carried on a common occurrence of Premier League players scoring against England with first half goal which gave Italy a lead and what looked like a victory until Andros Townsend struck in the 80th minute with a powerful effort to earn a draw for the visitors.
Hodgson told ITV how important it was that his players had managed to earn a draw against an Azzurri team that has beaten them in the last World Cup and European Championships.
“It means a lot to us,” he said. “It is no mean feat, to come to Italy and get a result, especially to take the game to them like we did.”
The former Inter manager was critical of his team’s first half performance.
“I haven’t forgotten the first half, we can’t allow that to happen. I don’t think anything was good enough.”
“In the second half we had really good control, but I was very disappointed with the first half.”
Townsend’s equaliser was an impressive strike after good work from Ross Barkley to find the Tottenham Hotspur winger, and Hodgson is glad that his decision to stick by the two players has paid off.
“Both Andros Townsend and Ross Barkley turned the game,” he continued. “Barkley was was very brave, an outstanding talent and I have got to say a word about Andros.
“We needed someone to do something a bit of special and he has come up with the goods. We are indebted to Andros.”
