England manager Roy Hodgson was keen to praise his side's positive approach to their World Cup warm-up games, despite failing to win either of their last two fixtures.

The Three Lions drew 2-2 with Ecuador in midweek before playing out a goalless stalemate with Honduras in a stormy Miami on Saturday evening, but Hodgson is adamant that his charges have learned from their experience.

He told reporters: "We have been on the front foot in all of the games so far. Maybe Italy will make it harder for us but we don't know what a back foot looks like.

"It is always a balance. I think these three warm-up games have at least shown us different types of pitches, maybe slower style pitches, where we had to choose the right moments to pressurise and when maybe to back off a bit. I thought we did that very well.

"I thought there were moments in the Honduras game when we got a lot of players around the ball, won it back and immediately launched a counter-attack but we didn't score."

England's first World Cup opponents Italy emerged victorious from their own warm-up game against Brazilian club side Fluminense on Sunday, with Borussia Dortmund-bound Ciro Immobile netting a hat-trick in a 5-3 win.

Written by
Chris O'Keefe