Looking at the two biggest Spanish sports newspaper websites (Marca and AS), both the reporters and thr online comments were very positive about England. Believe me this wasn't the casw in the past when our turgid play was castagated in Spain.

Many comments were saying it was the best game so far of the tournament.

So England are certainly winning friends with our new style of play.

England looked like world beaters next to Spain!
We'll have to wait and see whether the new style of play will stick.
There have been occasional games where England have played well.
Not in recent tournament history though.

It would have been interesting to see how the game would have turned out had England been drawn in Spain's group.

On ITV Ian Wright and some other guy were giving many of the England players a 5 or 6.

I found this puzzling really, I would save such scores for a truely dismal England performance. Against Italy they were fairly good, it could have easily been a draw or even an England win.

They played pretty well.

It gets tiresome seeing the same cliched comments from some, no matter what England do or how they play. You can have two totally contrasting styles of play, and the comment from some would still be the same turgid rubbish. One does wonder whether they actually watch the game.

England showed a lot more last night than they have done for many years. They actually played football for a change.

It is odd, because if one of the chances had gone in, you can bet those scores would be totally different.

Perhaps they were just using the whole scale i.e. 1 is abysmal, 5 is average and 10 is perfect, unlike people who never use the lower numbers.

Lee Dixon actually stated that '6 is the average' which doesn't work in a mathematical sense

What's the score for, as Townsend calls it, 'very average'?

6 if he's talking to Dixon. Dixon is ADAMANT that 6 is average

That's quite heartening. I'd been wondering what the media outside the UK had made of England's performances. So that's Spain covered. Is there anyone else who's aware of what other countries' media have been saying about England's performance last night?

Yep, Irish TV (RTE2) panel also said it was the match of the tournament so far and that England deserved credit for giving it a go and playing positively.

Excellent! If there's one thing better than the English media saying how good England have been, its the foreign media saying it. For a long time I didn't even want to know what the rest of the world's media thought about us as I dreaded to think what they were saying but not this time. Ok, good. That's two countries so far. Give me more someone!

French football journalist (who works in England) Philippe Auclair also very complimentary:

I would prefer England to win ugly than lose and be praised by foreigners, but that's just me.

Very true, but most of the time when England were getting criticised, they were losing ugly.

The guardian summarises what the Italian press have said:-

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ario-balotelli

Game of the tournament my backside. Did these guys not see the Spain v Holland match?
What is worrying if England were exceptional and still lost against against a average Italian side, then England have problems.

I agree, but last night was the first group stage match we have lost since 1998. England did attack well, but the result always matters most.

I disagree. It's likely that we will go out in the Group Stage this time around whereas in 2010 we reached the 2nd round. However if they play 2 more games like last night then I would class that as a far better tournament than last time.

I would much rather watch 3 England games where we show attacking verve and skill than 4 or 5 where we are turgid and play for 0-0s and penalties.

Yes the last World Cup was dreadful, but I'm not saying we shouldn't attack, just that we have to find a balance like we did in 2002 for example.

Spain vs Netherlands had some great goals from the Dutch, but the skill levels in the Eng - Ita encounter were excellent and both teams were very good going forward.

The Liechtenstein press are saying the Italians were tactically superior but that England were more exciting than they normally are.

They went out and had a real go! Passed the ball well and played some nice football at times. I thought we deserved at least a point!
The negatives - The final ball was poor and Rooney and our full backs were poor.
Whatever happens in this World Cup, there are postive signs for the future!

Bizarre, if they criticise the opposition like that when they win what are they like when they lose?