• Euro 2012

Hodgson: England have exceeded my expectations

Wayne Rooney's goal put England through to the quarter-finals © Getty Images

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Roy Hodgson admitted he was surprised to see England navigate the early matches of Euro 2012 so smoothly, after his team sealed top spot in Group D with a 1-0 victory over Ukraine.

Wayne Rooney, returning from a two-match suspension, scored the only goal of the game to send England through to a quarter-final clash with Italy on Sunday.

England were fortunate not to be pegged back in the second period when John Terry appeared to clear Marko Devic's shot after the ball had already crossed the line.

But on the whole, Hodgson felt that England were good value for the triumph in only his third competitive game in charge of the side.

Asked if the team had exceeded his expectations, Hodgson said to ITV: "Yes, absolutely. I think [the team] have been really good from the start. And if someone had said we were going to win the group, I don't think there would have been too many takers - most people seemed to think we wouldn't get out of the group.

"We've won [the group] on points, rather than goal difference, and that gives us an extra day's rest which we're badly in need of, because it was an extra-hard game for us tonight. This was an away game with a capital 'a'. There were 60,000 in the stadium, and only 4,000 brave Englishmen. So we didn't have much going for us in that respect.

"I thought it was a really good defensive, disciplined performance - and we needed a bit of luck where the ball may have crossed the line, and we got that luck and were able to carry on and win the match.

"We weren't showing enough composure on the ball when we broke out, and I think that's something we can work on and improve. But this is a fledgling team, we've not been working together for very long, and we are working on our game. Showing composure in attacking areas is always the most difficult area of football."

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