Pearce: England need to trust their talent

Spain coach Luis Milla was left to rue the concession of the late goal that rescued England in Sunday's 1-1 Group B draw in Herning. For all Spain's dominance, however, opposite number Stuart Pearce said he always felt confident in his defenders – but merely regretted the fact his team had failed to express themselves enough against a side whose "arrogance" in possession the England coach admired.

Luis Milla, Spain coach
In football, when you are on top, you have to be aware of being hit on the counterattack. I made substitutions to try and get the second goal and I thought we looked like getting a second goal, but instead it was England that scored. Overall, we have to be positive about the performance. We felt we were in control.

However, we just couldn't get that second and when you struggle to score you can be punished. In the end, they got their chance, through their most impressive player [Kyle Walker], and were rewarded for their perseverance. It was a sucker punch.

We are in a very strong group and we know all three opponents – the Czechs look strong and fast, while England are a very competitive side with pace, power and two forwards who kept our defenders busy. Switzerland, Denmark and Iceland also look good, but first we have to get out of the group and that won't be easy.

Stuart Pearce, England coach
We were disappointed about the goal we conceded – that gave the Spanish a lot of confidence, they rose 20% in stature on the back of it. I don't think our goal was threatened too much and we were rewarded in the end. If we had kept the ball from the Spanish team for as long as they did, we'd have won.

The disappointing thing is that people didn't see the talent that I've seen on the training pitch. We have to express that talent more. There is real ability. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow, a point on the run of play and chances created was probably an even result. But they will look at possession and say they had the ball all evening. Both teams live to fight another day, though, and I think this group will go to the final matches.

Kyle Walker and the two central defenders [Chris Smalling and Phil Jones] were outstanding, and for 90 minutes I didn't feel the opposition were going to score. I didn't fear we were going to concede. We just have to show a bit of the arrogance that the Spanish do.