Manager Gareth Southgate 'really positive with England performance', despite defeat to Germany

The 46-year-old saw Lukas Podolski cap his 130th and final appearance for his country with a stunning goal, but says that it will not detract from the Three Lions' display in Dortmund.

"Normally fairytales don't happen in football, but it did for him [Podolski]," Southgate said. "It was an outstanding achievement by him to win so many caps and score so many goals [for Germany].

"The goal was a wonderful strike and I'm sure we will look back at how we could have closed it down, but it was unstoppable for Joe Hart.

"We obviously won't spend too much time thinking about it, but I was pleased for Lukas.

"It is never nice to lose and I'm not usually over-positive if I have been defeated, but I have to be really positive with how the players performed."

Southgate switched to a three-man defence, a system England have not used for more than 10 years, to counter the hosts and believes it worked well.

"I decided six weeks ago that I would do it having watched videos of Germany and seeing them live last summer," Southgate said. "But we had to be creative in how we did it.

"We couldn't train on the field too many times, but we were able to walk through it in meetings and on the tactics board.

Southgate admitted that part of the reason he used the new formation was the success that clubs like Chelsea have had in implementing it this season. But he also singled out Burnley's Michael Keane for praise after his debut in an unfamiliar role.

"A few of the players have played it before or use it at their clubs, so it wasn't an alien system," he added. "And within it, I thought Michael Keane had an excellent debut."