England came away with a 2-2 draw against Brazil in an international friendly at the Maracana, thanks to goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wayne Rooney.
The English were under pressure right from the off, with the Brazilians utterly dominating the first half.
However, thanks to some good saves from Joe Hart and some wayward finishing, the score remained 0-0 at halftime.
Brazil pressed and probed a better-looking England side in the second half before Fred opened the scoring in the 57th minute, latching onto a rebound off a strike from substitute Hernanes which cannoned off the crossbar.
However, England stunned the home crowd by netting two goals in the space of 12 minutes.
Frank Lampard and Rooney combined to set up Oxlade-Chamberlain, who struck a delightful low volley into the back of the net in the 67th minute.
Amazingly, England, who only managed a disappointing 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland in their previous game, were 2-1 up 12 minutes later, with Rooney driving through before taking a strike which took a slight deflection off Fernando to render Cesar helpless.
Brazil, though, deservedly equalized eight minutes from time, thanks to a brilliant strike from Paulinho.
"Some draws can be labelled victories and some can be labelled defeats," Hodgson cryptically said after the match.
"We were disappointed after the Ireland game, not to win that, and I suppose I'm disappointed today because we scored quite late on.
"But we were scotched by a wonder strike, I have to say, and I also have to say we didn't play anywhere near what we can in the first half and Brazil did, so it's a fair result over the 90 minutes."
Hodgson admitted Oxlade-Chamberlain made a big impact after coming on for Glen Johnson on the hour mark.
"He was very lively," the England manager said. "Phil Jones was doing an excellent job but is really more of a defender playing in midfield.
"Alex gets on the ball and gets turned around, he added another dimension and got his reward by scoring a very good goal."
Meanwhile, in another friendly the Republic of Ireland eased to a 4-0 win over Georgia thanks to a brace from Robbie Keane and a goal apiece from Richard Keogh and Simon Cox.
