England manager Roy Hodgson describes 2013 as "a great year", despite ending it with the country's first back-to-back Wembley defeats since 1977. England lost 2-0 against Chile on Friday before Germany gave them another defeat thanks to Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker's first-half header.
"I'm not prepared to accept for one minute that two friendly defeats in which I have used a lot of players in two tough games is going to take the shine off what has been a very good year," said Hodgson. "It has been a great year for the Football Association on their 150th anniversary and it's been a great year for me because we have qualified for the World Cup. We have achieved our goal and we have a lot to look forward to. I am looking forward very much to 2014."
England were jeered off at the final whistle for the second consecutive game after Tuesday's defeat. Hodgson said: "You are always disappointed to get boos but there are not many games when the home crowd don't get the result they are hoping for and there are no boos. If we want to get acclaim, we are going to have to play better and win matches. We didn't play well enough and we didn't warrant that."
Hodgson did admit he was less pleased with England's display in attack, saying: "Where Germany were superior was in the quality of their passing and in their finishing around the final third. I thought we let ourselves down in that area and that was a disappointment. The major disappointment was that we didn't show the quality I was hoping for."
England are 20/1 at Bet365 to win next year's World Cup while Germany are among the top three favourites according to the bookmakers, their odds to win the trophy are 5/1 at Bet365.
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