Gareth Southgate lost his first game as England coach when Lukas Podolski fired home from 30 yards in the 69th minute.
But his team could have scored twice in the first half, as Adam Lallana struck the post and Dele Alli missed a golden chance – and even in the second period missed some good opportunities.
Southgate, who had been unbeaten in four matches as interim manager, this being his first game as permanent England coach, was in defiant mood afterwards as he said: “There were some real positives from this game.
“It is never nice to lose and I’m not someone who is over positive about things if I have been defeated, but I was really pleased with the way the team played.
“One of the areas where we fell down was finishing. We could have done better there.
“But it was a new tactical system for them and they adapted really well and I thought up until they scored we were the better side.
“I am very pleased with what we learned and the manner of our performance. Overall there are a lot of good things we will take out of this game.”
England played a new three at the back system for the first time under Southgate, having only had one day to work on it, but skipper Gary Cahill said: “We had the better chances in the game. When we look back and reflect, if we’d taken our chances we’d have won the game. It’s a learning curve for us.
“We played well, especially in the first half. We controlled the game. We have gone in on that formation on the back of one day on the training pitch. It’s difficult to grasp it straight away.”
England are planning to stage a tribute to those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack in London yesterday in their home World Cup qualifying match with Lithuania at Wembley on Sunday.
Southgate said: “One of our characteristics as a nation is that we don’t allow things like this to put us off carrying on with our working lives. We wanted to put on a performance of passion and desire which reflected that.”
Former Arsenal striker Podolski was playing his 130th and final game for his country and was given a standing ovation when he went off late in the match.
Podolski said: “I feel good. It was like a movie, but if it was a movie would be too kitsch. I could always rely on my left foot and it has worked again.”
