Gareth Southgate was pleased by England’s display in the defeat to Brazil and praised his trio of debutants as he experimented ahead of Euro 2024.
Saturday’s Wembley clash between these injury-hit sides ended in the hosts’ first defeat since their World Cup quarter-final exit to France 15 months ago.
England had hoped to start the international year with a bang but stumbled as teenage star Endrick came off the bench to secure Brazil a late 1-0 win.
The 17-year-old became the youngest man to score a senior international goal at Wembley, where Southgate was largely happy despite his side’s 10-match unbeaten run coming to an end.
“I was pleased,” the England manager said. “Clearly don’t like losing football matches, but I thought there were lots of very good individual performances from players who’ve hardly played for England.
“I thought our more regular players were very good.
“You know, with 15 minutes to go we’re thinking ‘we’ve managed to see a lot of new players, we’ve had more than our share of the game, we’ve had as many attempts on goal as they have’.
“The difference in the end was one moment, really, and that is the ruthlessness of football at this level.”
Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon made a promising first start and Ezri Konsa came on in the 20th minute following an injury to stand-in skipper Kyle Walker.
The Aston Villa defender filled in at right-back and Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 18, came off the bench 15 minutes from time.
“I thought Anthony was very good,” the England boss said. “Both sides of his game looked very accomplished.
“Ezri, to come in at the moment he did and to deal with a player of that quality (Vinicius Jr), I thought he was also excellent, showed real composure and he should be really happy with his debut. We were really pleased with him.
“Kobbie was a chance to dip his toes. We needed to refresh some of the team because we’ve got to manage their minutes a little bit, so that’s a strange situation when it’s a game of that size but that’s where we are.
“To get Kobbie on the pitch was a brilliant moment for him and his family. You saw a couple of turns and a couple of really composed moments that is a bit of an indication of what he might become.”
Southgate was waiting to find out the severity of the issue that forced Walker off in the first half, saying the right-back was unsure “whether it’s just tightness”.
But the England boss suspects “it’s a little bit more than that”, meaning he would miss Tuesday’s friendly against Belgium.
Southgate expects to have Cole Palmer and Jordan Henderson available for that game but confirmed captain Harry Kane will not feature due to an ankle injury.
“Yeah, he’ll go back,” he said. “He won’t he won’t be fit for Tuesday.
“(Henderson and Palmer) trained today so they’ve come through that OK.
“They should join the group that will train tomorrow and we’ll go from there with that.”
With Kane out and Ollie Watkins having the chance to lead the line against Brazil, the Belgium friendly surely provides a chance to start Ivan Toney.
The one-cap striker was an unused substitute on a rare night when England failed to find the net.
“We are playing a top team so chances are going to be limited,” Southgate said.
“Perhaps we had the chances from set-plays to capitalise on one of them that often makes the difference in those tight games.
“But I was really pleased with the players that went in. We need to find out about them, we need to know where we might head if we didn’t have Harry for a big match.
“I thought Ollie did a good job, didn’t get that clear chance on goal that you might want as a forward but a lot of his work was very, very good.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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