England boo boys right not to accept defeat, admits Hodgson

The Three Lions slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Chile at Wembley on Friday night, their first defeat in exactly a year, and were jeered from the field by a disgruntled home support

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England manager Roy Hodgson admitted he was not surprised that the home supporters booed his team off following Friday night’s 2-0 defeat to Chile at Wembley.

Alexis Sanchez struck twice for the South American visitors as the Three Lions laboured in their first friendly since qualifying for next summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

And the England fans who remained at the final whistle voiced their disappointment with the performance on a night when Hodgson made a number of changes to the side and handed debuts to Fraser Forster, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez.

“I think that [booing] is part of the game today,” Hodgson said. “Fans don’t accept defeats, they don’t want defeats, but who does?

“There aren’t many games today I see where there isn’t some sort of booing when the home team has lost.

“We learnt a lot tonight. I did say before the game I thought Chile were a very good team. They certainly proved that tonight - they were excellent.

“It’s important sometimes not to beat yourself up too much. Our players were very unhappy and disappointed that our good run came to an end at home.

“Taking positives from defeats is always a difficult thing to do. We have to play better to beat top teams but I don’t want them to beat themselves up too much.”

Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli was delighted with his side’s display and backed Sanchez to shine at the World Cup following an “historic” victory in London.

“It’s one of those events that go down in history,” Sampaoli said. “It was in the cathedral of football and it will make the people of Chile very happy.

“It was an outstanding performance from Alexis. A performance like that here at Wembley stands him in really good stead for the World Cup.

“He has got everything it takes to be a real star of the World Cup. He’s in great form and he showed his class tonight.”