Rice admits win is marred by mistakes

ENGLAND midfielder Declan Rice admitted that the shine was taken off Tuesday’s European Championship qualifying win over Kosovo in Southampton by their defensive lapses, writes Jonathan Veal.

The Three Lions battled back from conceding after only 34 seconds at St Mary’s Stadium to lead 5-1 at halftime, but a shoddy defensive display after the break saw it end 5-3.

All three of Kosovo’s goals came from individual mistakes, and the West Ham United player was guilty of giving the ball away in the lead-up to the visitors’ second goal.

After their early slip, the first half was a brilliant display of attacking football, but Rice was left thinking of the negatives. “I thought, first half, I was really good along with the rest of the team,” he said.

“In the second half, I made a mistake and that has taken the gloss off it for me,” he added. “We’re a real threat going forward but we need to keep it tight at the back and stop making mistakes.

“We need to look at the goals we’ve let in. A mistake from myself – sloppy, I could have done better there and it takes the gloss off it.

“Now I’m thinking I’m not that happy. I’ve made a mistake, they’ve scored, [Harry] Maguire has given a penalty away, Keano [Michael Keane] made a mistake, but it’s part and parcel. We’re never going to be perfect. The main thing is we got the three points and we’re unbeaten.”

As was the case in the UEFA Nations League defeat to Netherlands in the summer, the dangers of playing out from the back were highlighted with the way England conceded two of their goals, as Keane and Rice gave the ball away in dangerous positions.

Rice insists England are not going to change their approach, though. “The way we’ve been working all week on building from the back, playing through the lines, the manager [Gareth Southgate] is never going to change that,” he said. “The manager is never going to go ‘route one’, he’s going to live by that.

“First half, I thought we were top. Second half, I don’t know what happened. A couple of mistakes from me, the penalty, and it looked like we had a tough task on our hands.”