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By Mike Collett
BARCELONA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - England manager Fabio Capello defended his team's performance after their modest 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday saying it was hard for any team to score against a side with 11 men back in their own penalty area.
The Italian, in charge of his first competitive match since taking over as coach last January, said England had started the World Cup Group Six qualifier well.
"We...had three good chances in the first 15 minutes but did not take them," he said.
"But it is hard for any team to find space when they are playing against a team with nine 10 or 11 players in the box, it is impossible to find the space."
Seventeen months ago England beat Andorra 3-0 in the same Olympic stadium in a Euro 2008 qualifier after failing to score in the first half and this match followed a similar pattern.
Joe Cole, who replaced Stewart Downing at halftime, scored both goals and Capello said he had been forced to make changes at halftime.
Emile Heskey took the place of Jermain Defoe after the break and the substitutions helped produce the goals that brought England an opening qualifying group victory.
"Joe Cole is scoring goals at the moment and it's a good moment for him, while Emile Heskey also came on because he is big and we needed that."
But Capello would not be drawn on whether Cole, who also scored England's last-minute goal for a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic last month, would start next Wednesday's match against Croatia.
"That is a different game," said Capello. "We will have to see."
He also said he was not angry at halftime after a poor opening half and the only reason he sent the players out five minutes early for the second half was because the dressing room was so warm.
David Rodrigo, Andorra's manager, said he was proud of his team.
"Even though the scoreboard said we lost 2-0 we are proud. We played a very organised game in defence -- we were playing England, a big, important team and we only lost 2-0. We were the moral victors tonight."
"I am very happy with the result and happy with the performance. We stopped them from scoring for 45 minutes last year and stopped them for 45 minutes today. But it would be nice if we stopped them from scoring for 90 minutes consecutively."
