Rossi: We needed to play perfectly to stand a chance

At the press conference after the 4-0 defeat against England, Marco Rossi first spoke of being very disappointed with the result, then about the way his team reacted to the first goal conceded.

"I have little to say after that (game). When we play against a team like this which possesses more quality than we do, we can only trust that our opponent will have a bad day and that we'll do everything on the pitch flawlessly. England have proven to be much stronger than the French, German and Portuguese national teams (whom we faced at Euro 2020). We performed well in the first half and managed to defend in a compact way, despite several individual technical errors already happening - these multiplied in the second half. After the first goal, we allowed our defence lines to become more isolated from each other and we lost our solid defensive structure. We knew that our opponent could outlast us physically, but that was not the only are in which they were better than us. Tonight, the difference between the two teams was visible. It’s hard to digest a defeat with such a goal difference suffered by a national team".

When asked by a journalist, Rossi said he didn’t have much choice in terms of selection and, there weren't any more squad members to call upon, but that didn’t detract from his confidence in the players who were selected for this match.

"A new day begins tomorrow. We will analyse what happened, we will analyse what didn't work and we will have to correct them. We need to be focused against Albania, because they also have high-quality players. You have to go there with stamina and play with stamina. To do this, you need to be superior physically and mentally".

It was mentioned at the press conference that playing Endre Botka today would have been very risky, but that the team can probably count on him on Sunday, as well as on László Kleinheisler, who was replaced towards the end of the game against England.

Meanwhile, England coach Gareth Southgate said his team showed their superiority in a difficult match and won a confident victory in the end:

"In the first half, the final passes weren't right, so we couldn't gain an advantage. However, we knew that if we had the ball, our opponent would get tired by the end, and we took advantage of that in the second half. The first goal was important, because from then on our attacking game was smoother. We had to be patient, but we played football with the right mentality, and eventually the goals arrived. We're doing very well in the group and if we also win our next two matches, we'll almost certainly reach our goal and win the group".