• England 1-0 Spain, International friendly

Fabregas amazed by England negativity

Cesc Fabregas wasted a glorious chance late on to earn Spain a draw © Getty Images

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• Profile: Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas has shrugged off Spain's defeat to England, insisting his side played the more eye-catching football and deserved better against their negative opponents.

England produced little going forward but a workmanlike performance saw them edge to a 1-0 victory over the world and European champions at Wembley on Saturday.

Spain, who enjoyed the bulk of possession, were left to rue a late Fabregas miss as England held on for a morale-boosting win - although former Arsenal man Fabregas felt it was the more ambitious visitors who were the more worthy victors.

"At the end of the day, you want teams to have a go at you and test you and see what happens," he said. "We knew, especially after we saw the first XI that they put in, that they were going to defend basically the whole game.

"Even when they were winning, they had [Danny] Welbeck up front alone and everyone just defending. But this is the way they want to play and it worked for them."

England's winner arrived shortly after half-time when Frank Lampard headed in for his 23rd international goal but, despite their fourth loss in eight friendlies since triumphing at the World Cup last summer, Spain left the pitch unperturbed by the result.

"We always suffer a little bit more in friendly games and we change a lot of players and it's completely different," Fabregas said. "You cannot compare the [defeat by England] with important games like the Euros.

"We dominated the game and we made England defend nearly the whole 90 minutes. We played two completely different styles of football. The more defensive one won but we know that the only way they could score was from a free-kick or a corner and we conceded a not very intelligent free-kick there. We paid for it but, basically, we are happy because we played very well."

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