Roy Hodgson has no doubts his England team will bounce back from defeat in their World Cup opener against Italy.
Hodgson admitted the manner of the 2-1 loss was hard to take, considering the numerous chances created in Manaus.
Mario Balotelli's second half strike settled an entertaining Group D encounter deep in the Amazon rainforest after Claudio Marchisio had opened the scoring for the Azzurri and Daniel Sturridge levelled just two minutes later.
Hodgson's team had 18 efforts on goal, though only five were on target, and it was arguably the most positive Three Lions performance in years.
But the table still shows no points - making Thursday's clash with Uruguay in Sao Paulo a must-win encounter.
"That is the best I've seen the team play during my time with them," said Hodgson.
"We can still qualify. We are downhearted and sad. We were hoping for a perfect start but we don't live in a perfect world. I've got great confidence still and the players will get over this.
"We are trying to be a positive team. When we get the ball we want to go forward. We had some good chances to score and in the second half we did everything but score.
"The final ball was a bit disappointing because we are better than that. It's something to work on but we're a young team and it's a first World Cup for two thirds of this squad.
"Raheem Sterling was dangerous throughout the game, Daniel Sturridge was excellent all the way through. It's tough to accept that we've lost, Joe Hart has had a quiet evening.
"But to take Italy so close gives you confidence before we play Uruguay and Costa Rica."
England captain Steven Gerrard insisted there would be no excuses but also took plenty of positives from the performance - if not any points.
Liverpool team-mates Sturridge and Sterling both impressed on the biggest stage but Gerrard acknowledged that England - with all the chances they created - should have done more.
"Italy are a good team and we knew how they were going to play and they didn't surprise us," he said.
"It's disappointing because we've put so much work into this match and we've come away with nothing.
"We got criticised four years ago for sitting back but anyone who watched that game saw we were trying to create and we pushed and pushed and gave it everything we've got. We were unlucky to get nothing out of it.
"We created the chances but we needed to finish a few more off. We can't point any fingers. The effort, desire and commitment was there it was probably just a bit of final quality in the final third that cost us."
Gerrard insists England have improved dramatically since they lost to the Azzurri on penalties in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.
And he's already looking to Thursday's now crunch clash with Uruguay, who suffered a surprise 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica in their tournament opener.
"Italy were a very good team and we fell short but we are not out of this group yet," he added.
"They've improved from two years ago but we matched them all the way. We can be pleased with a lot of the game but at this level football is cruel, you try so hard and can still come away with nothing.
"Whatever the result here we had to go and beat Uruguay on Thursday, the challenge is perhaps more difficult now but it's certainly doable."
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