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England must not panic after Spain defeat, says Trippier
LONDON, Sept 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Kieran Trippier says there is no reason
for alarm after England slipped to their third consecutive defeat in their
Nations League opener against Spain.
Saturday’s match at Wembley was Gareth Southgate’s side’s first fixture
since they reached the World Cup semi-finals in Russia.
But England failed to take advantage of the feelgood factor from Russia,
losing their third straight match after their semi-final defeat against
Croatia and their loss to Belgium in the third-place play-off.
Marcus Rashford struck early for England but Saul Niguez levelled for Spain
moments later and Rodrigo scored the winning goal later in the first half.
But Tottenham full-back Trippier said there was no need to panic after the
2-1 defeat.
“It is not a concern,” he said. “We are building and that is all we can do,
play against these teams. We want to test ourselves against the best and
certainly tonight we put up a fight.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game. These are the teams we want
to play against.”
Late substitute Danny Welbeck saw a last-gasp equaliser controversially
chalked off as the referee deemed the Arsenal man had fouled Spain goalkeeper
David de Gea before turning the ball home.
“The ref gave a foul and personally I don’t understand how it was a foul
but these decisions happen and you have just got to move on,” said Trippier.
Welbeck himself was also at a loss to explain why his strike had been ruled
out.
“I don’t think I did too much wrong — it is the referee’s decision at the
end of the day,” he said.
Welbeck’s disallowed strike came deep into nine minutes of stoppage time,
most of which was amassed as Luke Shaw received treatment after a nasty clash
of heads with Dani Carvajal at the start of the second half.
The Manchester United defender, starting his first England game since
September 2015 — just a week before he suffered a double fracture that could
have cost him his right leg — was taken off on a stretcher with an oxygen
mask.
He was later walking and talking in the dressing room, with Trippier
admitting the incident looked worrying at first sight.
“As a team you don’t want it, to any player you don’t want the situation to
happen,” he said. “I was praying that he was all right and he seems a lot
better.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1725 hrs