England boss Gareth Southgate insisted he was “pleased with the mentality” of his side after they played out a goalless draw against the United States.
The United States has been on top for long stretches, but Southgate said England are now in a “position of strength” to reach the round of 16.
They face Wales in their final Group B game on Tuesday (19:00 GMT).
“The players are a bit depressed but I said I’m not, I’m not unhappy. It’s a game you can lose if your mentality isn’t right,” Southgate said.
England’s game and performance stood in stark contrast to their England crush Iran 6-2 in the opening group game.
“To come back from such a comfortable win, it’s very difficult to get back to that kind of level,” Southgate told BBC Sport.
“I thought we were in control, our two centre-backs with the ball were exceptional. We lacked a bit of dynamism in the final third tonight.
“I’m not frustrated. We had to show another side of ourselves tonight and I’m actually happy with the mentality of the team.
“I’m sure – because that’s how it is – that there will be a negative reaction to what happened, but [the USA] are a difficult team and as we have seen in this tournament there are a lot of results that are not easy.
“I knew this game would be like tonight because of the strength of the opponent and the way they defended.”
England remain top of Group B with four points and as long as they do not lose by more than four goals against Wales, they will qualify for the knockout stage.
“It puts us in a strong position. If we win our last game, we win the group. The goal is always to get out of the group and we’ve done that in two games in the last two tournaments – we can’t. don’t expect us to do this all the time,” Southgate said.
More soon.
