Its a step, a step to reality. That is how Fabio Capello described England's friendly defeat against Spain, a result that burst the bubble which had been swelling ominously in the wake of their impressive start to World Cup qualifying.

The Three Lions went down 2-0 at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in Andalusia, with David Villa opening the scoring after some sublime first-half footwork and Fernando Llorente heading home the sealer late on.

Capello said in The Sun, Spains percentage of possession is always very high. Spain didnt have a lot of chances to score goals and we had the same number. But they played better because possession of the ball is very important to them.

Our style is good against some teams but when you play against the South American style you have to understand what you have to do. You have to change something.

They are the European champions. We tried to play like we do usually but the pressing Spain did to win the ball back showed they are a very good team.

England were found out somewhat in the absence of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand, and Capello hinted that certain players need to sharpen up.

We learned a lot. The next time we are together we will look at this game and understand what it is we have to do, the Italian said. Some of the players have the intelligence to understand what we have to do in the next game.