Powell salutes Duggan, Lavrentyev reflects
Monday, July 15, 2013
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Hope Powell admitted that England "didn't perform again" but praised Toni Duggan for the late equaliser that denied Russia, meaning mixed feelings for boss Sergey Lavrentyev.
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Hope Powell, England coach
We didn't perform, to be honest – again. We really need to look at that but we have to be pleased with the point. I'm not overly delighted, the players aren't overly delighted, but we know we are still in it. It's tough, but we've got another game to play.
We created enough chances to win the game and when you don't score you put yourself in trouble. When you concede a sloppy goal you get in more trouble and we made it very, very difficult for ourselves. The goal came in injury time, one pleasing thing. We have to give praise to Russia, they put ourselves on the back foot and got themselves a point.
[Toni Duggan] is a natural goalscorer, we know this. I'm really pleased everybody fought to the end and we got a point.
Sergey Lavrentyev, Russia coach
[After Friday's 3-1 defeat by France] we made an attempt to relax the team, to tell them they are capable of playing football, good football. We did not put them under pressure. We gave them an opportunity to sort out their feelings.
I would not like to pick out anybody today, just the whole team. Modern football means the whole team play in both attack and defence. We knew England and understood it would be a mistake to play open football against them. We tried to use our quick players and play wide.
Russians have a saying: 'The more complicated the better it is for us.' Anyway, we analysed our group before from a strategic point of you and understood that everything would still be decided in the third game against Spain.
Of course I am disappointed after such an result but it is even more disappointing as we had chances to score a second. However, I want to say thank you to the city of Linkoping and all the supporters here. I think we saw a great fiesta of football today.