Wednesday 10 September 2014 07:11, UK
Wayne Rooney is proud of the way England's inexperienced players shone in Switzerland in their opening European qualifier, rating it their best performance since the win over Brazil last year.
England's testing summer ended on a positive note as Roy Hodgson's side followed up a friendly win over Norway with a 2-0 win in Basel, Danny Welbeck scoring both goals.
Rooney, who continued in his new role as captain, thought the three points were richly deserved and came in a showing he feels matched the 2-1 win over Brazil in February 2013.
"The result, I thought, was the most important thing," Rooney said. "Obviously we wanted to play well and wanted a good performance, but I think it was vital we didn't lose.
"We knew that and I also thought we played really well. We stuck to our game plan, we created chances, maybe could have been a couple of goals up at half-time.
"I think it is probably our best performance since Brazil at home, at Wembley, but we have to keep going, have to keep working.
"We are a young team and there were still some things out there that we could have done better and a few sloppy mistakes at times, but we'll work on that.
"We're a young team but we're progressing and hopefully we can continue."
Rooney also revealed the players within England's squad have started to talk over their performances away from Hodgson and the rest of the coaching staff, something he claims aided their performance in Switzerland.
"We have worked hard and, to be fair, the players have taken a lot of responsibility. We have had meetings among ourselves, just players in the rooms, watching videos and discussing how we can do better as a team," he added.
"Obviously the manager gives us our game plan, but because we don't spend that much time together as a team we need to know and feel confident in what we're doing as a team together.
"In the meetings, you're having the players speak up who wouldn't normally speak up when coaches are there. They've been good and I think the players have really stood up. We've worked hard."
We have had meetings among ourselves, just players in the rooms, watching videos and discussing how we can do better as a team.
Team-mate Joe Hart hopes the Basel victory was just the start of what will be a quick qualification for the 2016 tournament in France.
"It is a new campaign so three points was vital against one of the main contenders for the group," Hart said. "It was a really good result.
"We've always been confident. I can't remember a performance when we didn't play with confidence. We played well, executed a plan and we got the victory.
"We are fighting for the European Championship. We've learnt from the summer, taken the positives and negatives, and we're going to take them into this campaign and hopefully get to France as soon as possible."
