Roy Hodgson defends Steven Gerrard

England manager Roy Hodgson has defended his captain Steven Gerrard after he was shown a red card against Ukraine.

Having gone a goal down, a Frank Lampard penalty drew the hosts level late on in the game before Gerrard was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Afterwards, Hodgson criticised Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir and deemed his dismissal of the Liverpool midfielder as harsh.

"I thought all the yellow cards were harsh," said Hodgson.

"It was not a game were there were a lot of bad fouls. There were not a lot of fouls full stop. There were far too many yellow cards for the fouls that were committed and we certainly got too many.

"Steven Gerrard is certainly very unlucky to be sent off. I don't think the two fouls he was adjudged to have committed were worthy of that sanction."

England remain unbeaten in their World Cup qualifying campaign.