Jamie Vardy is England's bright spark as Dutch win at Wembley
Netherlands extinguish much of the optimisim generated by Germany win as Hodgson's team slip up at home
England 1 The Netherlands 2
Three days after their memorable win in Berlin, England endured a night to forget in front of their home fans as the Netherlands inflicted a rare Wembley defeat on the Three Lions.
The Dutch, who failed to qualify for Euro 2016, have lost to Iceland and Kazakhstan in the past 12 months but were too good for an England side that showed eight changes from the team that took the field against Germany on Saturday night.
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Other than Jamie Vardy, few Englishmen stated a case for inclusion in the Euro 2016 squad that Roy Hodgson will announce on 12 May.
Captain James Milner was anonymous in the midfield, putting in another of those performances that leaves one wondering how he's accumulated a half-century of caps.
But it was the defence that caused most concern for the Wembley faithful. Danny Rose and John Stones both had poor matches and were at fault for the visitors' first goal five minutes into the second-half.
First Stones slipped, gifting possession to Vincent Janssen, and then Rose handled the ball after his goalkeeper, Fraser Forster, had parried the Dutchman's shot. It may have been a tough call on Rose, but the Tottenham defender was fortunate not to have conceded an earlier first-half penalty for a wild challenge on Joel Veltman.
Janssen converted the penalty and also created the visitors' second goal 13 minutes from time, barging Phil Jagielka off the ball before whipping in a cross that was neatly tucked into the net by Luciano Narsingh.
England complained with some justification that Janssen had fouled Jagielka, but the goal stood and was what the Dutch deserved on a night when they played with more industry and imagination than their hosts.
The home team flared to life only intermittently and most of the time it was Vardy who provided the spark. The Leicester striker, who scored a sweet goal against Germany, was once more on target, this time finishing off a crisp interchange of passes between Adam Lallana and Kyle Walker to give England the lead on 41 minutes.
England's inability to defend that in the second-half disappointed Hodgson in what was the last friendly before he names his squad for Euro 2016.
"It was nothing like the performance I was after," he said. "We weren't as intensive or incisive as we were against Germany. We weren't as creative but we had control over the game."
It was England's first defeat at Wembley since losing 2-0 to Chile in November 2013, but Hodgson said the last few days had been instructive for both him and his players.
"I gave a lot of different players a chance to play. I've really aired the squad, if you like," he said. "Hopefully, that might be to my advantage in the future, when I'm thinking about players and thinking about making decisions."
The manager will name his 23-man squad in six weeks and they will play three friendlies in late May - against Turkey, Australia and Portugal - before heading to France. England should make it out of a pool that contains Slovakia, Wales and Russia, who lost 4-2 to France last night, but on the evidence on Tuesday evening, the bullish optimism engendered by Saturday's victory was premature.
"I can't deny that I'm frustrated," said Hodgson. "But we've got plenty of games to get our momentum back. We have three further preparation games before France, so there are opportunities to gain momentum and learn lessons from this defeat."
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