'Remain positive'
Thursday, 18 October, 2007
Paul Robinson is urging the Three Lions to concentrate on getting the right result against Croatia next month.
Russia 2-1 England
UEFA European Championship Qualifier
4pm (BST), Wednesday 17 October 2007
Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow
Live on Sky Sports
England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has urged his Three Lions team-mates to remain positive after losing in Russia - and think only about beating Croatia next month.
Steve McClaren's side can still reach the Euro 2008 finals with the right combination of results and although they need Russia to drop points, Robinson doesn't want to give up hope.
"It is out of our hands but we've got a game against Croatia,” he said.
“We've got to get a result and we've got to remain positive and hope the other results go our way.
"It is difficult when you are depending on other teams, but we've got to hope that Israel are as resolute against Russia as they were against us. They put a lot of men behind the ball and fought hard."
England, of course, drew 0-0 in Tel Aviv, where Israel have an outstanding home record. So all may not yet be lost.
Even so, Robinson admits that England's players are struggling to come to terms with what happened in Moscow, where they played so well but went from 1-0 up to 2-1 down.
"For four or five minutes in the second half they got back into the game, they got the momentum and it is difficult to play against a team when they get the momentum," added the Tottenham Hotspur star.
"We came here not to lose. In the first half half, it went according to the game plan and we were fortunate to get the goal as well. But for four or five minutes in the second half, we lost control of the game.
"It was a low dressing room. We've come off some very good results and we were quite optimistic at half-time after a very good first half performance. We needed to keep it going.
"We've done what we didn't want to do - we've lost. We can't believe we have lost. It is difficult to take after the way we controlled the game in the first half.
"But we have to stay focused and still believe because as we have seen here, five minutes can change a football match and Russia have got a difficult place to go to and they've got to get the results now."
Goals
Pavlyuchenko 69 (pen), 73 Rooney 29