England manager Fabio Capello blames draw on fatigue

England boss Fabio Capello said a lack of energy was partly to blame for the 2-2 draw in their Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland at Wembley.

Capello saw England come from 2-0 down to rescue a point but then fade badly in the latter stages, while Darren Bent missed golden chances to win it.

"After 2-2 we got four chances to score the third goal," said Capello.

"We missed those chances but I can see that in the last 10 minutes some players were without energy."

England were 2-0 down just after the half hour through two Tranquillo Barnetta free-kicks but pulled one back from the penalty spot after Frank Lampard converted.

Substitute Ashley Young then equalised in the 51st minute with the Aston Villa forward injecting some much needed energy into a tired looking England side.

"Some players arrived at the last 10 minutes without energy. In modern football if you can't press it is difficult," added Capello, who said that he had not underestimated Switzerland.

"For this reason I was happy for the reaction and for the chances that we created but the last 10 minutes I was worried. I saw the Swiss team doing really, really well."

After Young's equaliser England then had several chances to take the lead - with Bent in particular guilty of wasting two gilt-edged opportunities - before they faded but managed to hold on for a point.

Capello lamented those missed chances from Bent, who saw one shot smothered by Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio when clean through and another blaze over the crossbar with the goalmouth gaping. Young and Stewart Downing also later missed clear-cut opportunities.

"Bent always has the chances but this time he missed the chances. It is incredible because we missed four chances that were really clear," Capello commented.

Bent though was confident his misses would not result in him being dropped from the England side.

The Aston Villa striker revealed afterwards that Capello had reassured him about the misses.

"Fabio said, 'Don't worry about it'," Bent said.

"I'm a striker, all strikers miss chances and I'm sure when the next ones comes along I'll bury them.

"As a striker, you practise taking chances and, obviously, today it wasn't meant to be.

"But we move on from that, take the positives from the game.

"I thought our second-half performance was good and we'll move on to the next international."

Saturday's game was Bent's third start in the last four internationals.

He added: "It's gone really well.

"Fabio's shown real faith in me this season - I thank him for that.

"And he's played me again for another 90, which hasn't happened before in the past, and I'm over the moon about it.

"All I can keep doing is doing well for my club side, which I've done this season, and get a good rest under my belt. It's been a long old season."

Meanwhile, the Football Association has played down the problems experienced by England fans before the game.

Although the qualifier was a sell-out, there were a significant number of empty seats at kick-off.

Angry fans made their displeasure known on the social networking site Twitter.

It is believed problems were caused due to the larger than normal numbers who arrived at the stadium shortly before kick-off.

"There were a large number of late entries to the stadium which contributed to queues at several turnstiles," an FA spokesman stated.

"Nonetheless, over 80,000 fans were in their seats 15 minutes after kick-off."