England 1 Ukraine 1: We deserved at least a draw, says Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson felt a draw was the least his side deserved as Frank Lampard’s late penalty spared England’s blushes against Ukraine at Wembley.

Yevgeni Konoplianka’s specular first-half effort put Ukraine in front and the visitors held their lead until the 87th minute, when Yevgeni Khacheridi’s handled in the box and Lampard duly dispatched the resulting penalty.

Captain Steven Gerrard was dismissed moments later for a second bookable offence and the England boss thought his side could have grabbed a winner if the Liverpool midfielder had still been on the pitch.

“I am disappointed,” said Hodgson. “There won’t be too many people watching the game that would disagree with me when I say some of the yellow cards were extremely harsh.

“Steven Gerrard was very unfortunate to get sent off, I would be amazed if he made two tackles during that game, let alone two bookable offences.

“Luckily we got our reward and who knows if Steven Gerrard had managed to stay on the pitch we might have got a winner.”

Hodgson added: “Had we lost the game it would have been harsh on us as we deserved the draw.”

Despite the disappointing result, Hodgson was heartened by the Three Lions’ overall display at Wembley after a sluggish start.

“The first 15 minutes we weren’t at our best. The next 75 minutes we dominated the game totally. We created chances throughout the game, we struck the post three times. We thoroughly deserved a point.

“I am very happy with what happened out there. The fact is we played against a very good Ukraine team but I was very pleased with the way the players went about their task.

“I leave Wembley tonight a lot more confident that we have a squad that will take us to Rio in 2014.”

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