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Gareth Southgate praised Rico Lewis after the teenage debutant bounced back from a contentious penalty call made against him during an impressive first England appearance away to North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
An unbeaten year that started with victory in Italy ended with a 1-1 draw away in chilly Skopje as the Euro 2020 runners-up rubberstamped their place among the top seeds for next year\u2019s finals.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s trip to Skopje represented England\u2019s final match on foreign soil before Euro 2024 gets under way in June, and Southgate\u2019s side had to dig deep after falling behind to a team they beat 7-0 in June.<\/p>\n
Lewis was unlucky to see a spot-kick awarded against him shortly after Harry Maguire survived making a clumsy challenge in the box, with Enis Bardhi scoring after Jordan Pickford saved his initial spot-kick.<\/p>\n
England returned from the break strongly and Southgate quickly turned to Harry Kane, who immediately forced Jani Atanasov into an own goal that would seal the draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the performance was good, mentality was excellent,\u201d England boss Southgate said after bringing the curtain down on 2023.\u00a0\u201cI thought we played well, we totally controlled the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was difficult with the way that they defended and the pitch not easy to get the perfect final pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I thought there were some excellent performances within the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think that was a penalty. The one before might have been, so maybe that evened itself out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve zero to say about (the VAR) which probably tells you everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully Southgate was more forthcoming when it came to the performance of versatile talent Lewis.<\/p>\n
Making his England debut a day shy of his 19th birthday, the left-back was in a far more advanced position in possession and reacted well to the penalty decision against him.<\/p>\n
Lewis caught Bojan Miovski with an arm when rising to win a header and referee Filip Glova pointed to the spot after reviewing the incident on the VAR\u2019s behest.<\/p>\n
Asked if that moment may overshadow the teenager\u2019s debut, Southgate said: \u201cWell, it shouldn\u2019t do because he was excellent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis performance and then his reaction to what I know will have been a disappointment for him, but we\u2019re not looking at him for being at fault in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis composure with the ball was outstanding and he should be really proud because we are very, very pleased with what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southgate said there was no need to console Lewis about the penalty at half-time and instead reminded him about how well he was playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought Rico throughout the whole game was excellent,\u201d the England manager added. \u201cGreat composure, great resilience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t feel he had anything to come back from but I know sometimes as a player you might feel that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we thought there was no crime, so we were pleased with everything he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis was the youngest starter on a night when Manchester City team-mate Kyle Walker was the elder statesman and skippered his country for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice moment for him to captain his country,\u201d Southgate said of the 33-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really grown in terms of his leadership. I know he\u2019s thriving on that with his club and that will be a special moment in his career as well.\u201d<\/p>\n