England captain Harry Kane said the Three Lions "on another day" could have beaten Spain after losing to the world champions 3-2 at Wembley.
Kane scored in the first half but missed a penalty to put England back ahead, as Mikel Oyarzabal punished him and proved to be the Three Lions' nemesis again.
England's skipper praised the way the team played, going toe-to-toe with the best in the world.
"I spoke before that we reached good levels at the World Cup but didn't quite put a full 90 minutes together. Probably similar again today," Kane told ITV.
"We had a couple of good moments though, that period was as good as we've played in a long, long time and that's the standard we know we can reach.
"We're playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe. On another day for sure we'd have won that game.
"We have to take the positives from it. We have to dust ourselves down and go again in a few days."
Kane was asked if the ongoing situation with Manchester City, who have just been found guilty of 114 Premier League charges, impacted the team's build-up.
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The England captain said: "There was a discussion, but at the end of the day, when we're with England, that's been a big plus for us; we kind of put club football to one side, and it was no different this week."
Anthony Gordon was one of the standout performers for the Three Lions, getting England's first goal with a lovely finish after a brilliant counter-attack.
The Barcelona winger felt the loss was a "missed chance", feeling the team were good enough to take something from Spain.
He said: "I thought it was a great game to watch and to play in, some of the attacking play was at the highest level.
"But I think in a game like that mistakes cost you. You always feel like it's you're giving it away rather than them winning it.
"But of course you could argue both teams because they were as good as us and we were as good as them. I'm just gutted about the mistakes."
Gordon spoke earlier this week about England playing to their strengths, and was asked if his counter-attacking goal epitomised his thoughts and comments.
The forward said: "Kind of if you want to phrase it that way in terms of what I said in the week about being direct and playing to an English style, being quick, really putting teams on the back foot.
"It kind of summed up what I said, which was quite nice, but ultimately it didn't lead to a victory.
"Like I said a couple of days ago, I don't think there is a gap [to Spain] I feel like we're right there. We can win that game so easily.
"If the penalty goes in, we can go on and win the game. In hindsight, it's always easy to say that. But I felt good in the game.
"I don't think there is a gap, and I think if we played them in the final, I would've felt confident. Being confident doesn't always translate into a win, but I think you've seen here tonight that we're a top team."
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