Points on the board are all that matters, getting plaudits for getting a draw is useless, and does us no favours whatsoever.

We need at the very least one win from these next two games, and not winning today just adds on extra pressure for us to do so.
So playing well means nothing at all if you don't won the game.

As I said previously, give me playing poorly and winning with an own goal, rather than like today, anytime, as it is only the points that matter.

As a one off yes but I want to watch good football and really wouldn't be happy watching us playing boring uninspiring football. I'm happy to see an exciting England team and it gives me some hope that we will soon get the wins we deserve to go with the performance.

But that's the problem - in a club season you get time for decent results to catch up with decent performances. In international tournaments you don't.

Why do you say that? Wales will have extra confidence going into the game because they won the previous one, and are playing against us in a major tournament

Give me a Greece style winning of the trophy, rather an great performance but going out of the tournament.

Heroic failure is still failure, whereas an underwhelming victory, is still a victory, for me in a tournament where every game matters, give me the latter of those two options every single time.

We are capable of beating Russia too but look what happened tonight

Not so much time no but we still have two matches to go and due to the format of the tournament we could even afford to lose one of them. The performance tonight gives me reason to believe we could still do pretty well in this tournament if we start to get the goals we deserve. If we had played crap but got the win, sure we'd have the points but I wouldn't hold out any hope of us getting far.

Yup that is why those pundits that praised the performance are idiots, the performance now becomes totally irrelevant.

If we had held on, then yes of course the performance would have been just as good as the three points, however the fact of the matter is we didn't hold on, we conceded, and thus only got a one single point.

The performance thus becomes a total and utter irrelevance.

It is the points now that are vital, if we beat Wales 1-0 with an own goal, that would be waaaayyyyy more satisfying then what we took away from the Russian match.

If we cannot beat this very, very poor Russian side, what gives you any hope that we can beat sides which are better then them?

The good performance is worth mentioning because it gives us hope for the next games.

You think the pundits should've criticised the players then? I'm sure if the media all lay in to the team that's really gonna help with their confidence going into the next match!

You're acting as though there's zero correlation between performances and results in football.

Believe it or not, if you play well, you have a greater chance of achieving good results, and if you play poorly you have a greater chance of achieving bad results.

Sure, you can play rubbish and win, but it's a lot less likely than if you play well. Even then it''s not something you can choose to happen. A team playing poorly but winning is trying to play well too.

Because we made loads of chances and on another day could've scored several goals. It just didn't quite happen for us this time.

Plus we beat a good German team not that long ago so I know we have it in us to beat good sides.

So if that extra 90 seconds went by without England conceding you wouldn't be on here with post after post of comments about England's performance?

And if that extra 90 seconds went by without England conceding you wouldn't be using this performance to predict that England have 0% chance in any circumstances of beating Wales?

And that nothing can be read into a game whatsoever beyond looking at the final score?

I think the result has made the Welsh match that much harder, mentally and statistically. If we'd held on for 90 more seconds that wouldn't be the case.

If we win 1-0 in the next match but play terribly then the press will jump all over them for a negative performance so they can't really win

I thought they were exciting to watch tonight, speedy and passionate for the ball, so I'm not jumping on any doom and gloom I think we will get through the group.

Kane taking the corners still baffles me though.

England played well, should have bought on Vardy after they scored the 1st goal, with the Russians trying to level, he's the kind of player who could have hit them on the break and get the 2nd, same maybe with Rashford, not sure why Hodgson didn't use them

Surprisingly enough if we had held on, then yes, the performance would have been woryh mentioning, and praising, as it would have been job done three points in the bag, level on points with Wales, and the whole complexion of the group would have been very different from what it is now in real life.

As it is, we didn't manage to hold on, thus we came away not with three points, but with one single one, and could very well be in third place by the time we play our next match against the league leaders.

Performance in such a small amount of matches, is no way near as important as picking up the points.

Points are the only thing that matters.

Get through the group in what position though?
1st seems a bit far fetched now, and even second place might be out of reach if we get beat by Wales.

The press might be all over us if we play poorly but beat Wales 1-0, but that would totally be irrelevant, as we would be looking better points wise than we are right now, and that is all that matters.

The point is we didn't create all that much, and the ones that we did were shot straight at their keeper for the most part.
We did well, but not well enough to get the three points, and we won't get through unless we actually do win one of our remaining games, and we won't win if we don't vastly improve our chance conversation ratio.

Winning a friendly is totally irrelevant when talking about a tournament match that actually means something, do you honestly think that we could beat Germany when it counts in a tournament??

Lallana's best position is CAM but he's good on the right. In terms of natural wingers Englandare lacking. I might be forgetting someome but we only really have Sterling, Ox and Ashley Young. Is the Ox in the 23? I know Walcott and Young aren't. We aren't blessed in that area at the moment.

Then you've got players who can play on the wing. Milner's a wide player. He signed for Liverpool on the promise that he'll be played centre-mid but his best games are out wide.

Hendo's not bad on the right. Sturridge isn't great out wide, one of the reasons he came to us was because he couldn't play in the middle. But he can play there if he has to, and Rooney seems to be able to play anywhere.

I think we're particularly weak on the left wing.

I'd like to see more James Milner.

I agree.
Wales are getting all the praise because they won their game in their first major tournament for blah blah blah.....
If I'm honest, I thought they were poor, Ramsey in particular.
We (England) will beat Wales.

Doubt it. Think it will be a draw and England will finish 2nd in the group.

note of topicality....................

it did cross my mind that Russia were Rope-a-Doping us...............letting us tire ourselves out running at their pretty solid defence until we got knackered near the end of the game

also it struck me that when you go one nil up is the time to bring Vardy on not a defensive midfielder to 'shore things up'.................the other team will be coming at you . That's when Vardy can win you the game or at least force them to commit fewer players up front or keep tem 20 yards further back

Well that's 90 minutes of my life wasted that I won't get back, sorely tempted to find something worthwhile to do instead of watching the other matches, I guess I should have known what to expect from England lacklustre and very unconvincing as per usual.