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European Qualifiers: Roy Hodgson delighted with England's win in Switzerland

Image: Roy Hodgson: Saw England make the best possible start to qualifying

Roy Hodgson believes England have 'been building' towards the type of performance they put in during a 2-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday.

The Three Lions opened their European Qualifiers campaign in Basel, and left with three impressive points as a Danny Welbeck brace got them off to the best possible start.

England, adopting a diamond formation from the off, were much improved from their friendly showing against Norway, with pace and power causing problems for the hosts.

Hodgson maintains that he never questioned such a display was possible, even after a disappointing showing at the World Cup finals in Brazil, with a young squad still a work in progress as it takes aim at the 2016 European Championship in France.

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Roy Hodgson said he felt an impressive performance was just around the corner

He told Sky Sports: “I think every win is important and every game as England manager is unbelievably important.

“I think it is a very honoured and privileged position and every time I lead an England team out or an England player puts a shirt on, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing Switzerland away or San Marino at home, it’s a big occasion.

“I agree that this one had a special importance because we needed to play well and get a result against a team, strangely enough, ranked higher than us at the moment.

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“We’ll take that with us, we’ll rejoice in that, but on the other hand, I’ll repeat it again, I think we have been building up to this type of performance over the course of two years.

“We have been changing our team and players over two years. We had the unfortunate kick in the teeth in Brazil, but it was no more than a kick in the teeth. We have been able to get over that, pick our teeth up, put them back in and go again.”

Confidence

Hodgson added on the importance of starting the campaign on a positive note and the feel-good factor that will bring to his ranks: “I think it will give them a lot of confidence. I think this was an important one to play well in because some of the games we have coming up, especially at Wembley against lesser opposition, if players had played well in those games, there would be a tendency to say, ‘Wait until a big team comes along’.

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Captain Wayne Rooney credits a good team performance for England's 2-0 win

“But here, I think Switzerland haven’t lost a qualifying match here since England beat them four years ago, so this was always going to be a tough ask. I thought the players stood up to it very, very well. We really got our rewards tonight.

“I thought even in the first half that we should be leading the game, we had a couple of very good chances early in the second half that we missed, but fortunately we took the one that really put is in the ascendancy and were able to aggravate the score at the end.”

Both of England’s goals came on the counter, with Wayne Rooney and Raheem Sterling playing important supporting roles as Welbeck was presented with the opportunities to steal the headlines.

Hodgson said: “That’s going to be a weapon for us going forward, the pace and the mobility of our players, the technical ability.

“But more than that tonight, I think you saw the unbelievable work rate and unbelievable togetherness of the team, people like Rooney, Welbeck chasing back to make certain we weren’t outnumbered.

“There are a lot of positives for me to take but we’re not getting carried away. It was a good result but we have a lot of work still to do and we are rather hoping that it will at least give these boys a bit of confidence that if we can come here and win, we can go to other big teams.”