Fonte encouraged by Portugal display against England

Despite playing most of the game with ten men, following the first-half dismissal of Bruno Alves, the visitors nearly held out for a draw, denying England any clear-cut opportunities until Chris Smalling headed in a Raheem Sterling cross four minutes from time.

Fonte, who was introduced at centre-half in the 38th minute, shortly after Alves was sent off for an extremely high boot on Harry Kane, felt there were a lot of positives for Portugal to take ahead of the start of this summer's tournament.

The Saints skipper told youtube.com/southamptonfc: "We're disappointed not to get at least a draw, after being with one man less for so long and working hard.

"I thought we actually did well when we went one man down. We were compact, we didn't give England many chances, we felt comfortable and I felt comfortable.

"It's disappointing to concede in the last minutes, but we've got to take the positives – we look difficult to break down and still we had two good chances to win the game, so we take the positives and move on to the most important thing and that's the EUROs."

Fonte, who helped keep the Three Lions attack quiet alongside fellow centre-half Ricardo Carvalho, added: "England has five top strikers at the moment, so it's tough.

"They have quality and they will be a threat in the EUROs, but we didn't give them space, we were deep, they didn't have the space they needed, so it was difficult for them to break us down, but they have quality for sure, they'll be good in the EUROs."