Gerrard vows to make amends for back-pass blunder

STEVEN GERRARD has vowed to make amends for his crucial blunder against France in Sunday’s Euro 2004 clash and the England midfielder and his team-mates want revenge in the final.

Gerrard was devastated after his under-hit injury-time back-pass forced David James to concede the penalty which Zinedine Zidane converted to earn France a 2-1 victory.

That came barely 60 seconds after Zidane had cancelled out Frank Lampard's first-half goal with a superb free-kick.

Gerrard has held his hands up and said sorry for his error which makes it paramount that England defeat Switzerland in Coimbra on Thursday.

"I am so disappointed over the back-pass. I hadn't seen Thierry Henry. It was a silly error by me.

"It really hurts because we deserved the victory and had the game wrapped up but we gave away a silly free-kick for the equaliser and then I did what I did. Two individual errors have been punished. It makes our game against Switzerland even bigger now because we need to get three points on the board ourselves and make sure we reach the quarter-finals.

"We heard the French players shouting and singing after the game, but they didn't win the tournament on Sunday.

"We can make massive positives from what happened on Sunday and, hopefully, we'll meet France again in the final and get revenge. I'll make up for that error.

"It is also better that we have those kind of mistakes now than later. Hopefully, that is all of our bad luck out of the way for the competition in those couple of minutes."

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is placing his trust in David Beckham to lead England's Euro 2004 fightback by putting his penalty miss against France firmly behind him.

The England coach, who has a fresh fitness worry over Paul Scholes, declared: "If David feels that he doesn't want to do it any more, then we will pick someone else. But if he feels that he is still the best, then he will carry on. I think he should like to take another penalty today if there was another chance. I don't have any worries about him." Indeed, Eriksson has called upon his captain to use his experience to ensure the entire squad, and especially the younger players, do not allow self-doubt to creep into their minds now.

"David was alone in the dressing-room after the game when everyone was already sitting on the bus," revealed Eriksson.

"I said something about the fact that he's important now, like all the coaches, to start building things up again morally and mentally. He is mentally strong and he is our captain so, of course, he can give a lead to the rest of the squad. It's important that all the senior players, like Gary Neville, Sol Campbell and Michael Owen, do that."

Eriksson spent just two minutes discussing the defeat by France in yesterday's team talk, preferring to stress the positives to his squad.

"What do you say to Steven Gerrard? 'Don't play the ball to the goalkeeper?'

He didn't see Thierry Henry, so what do you say about that? It's only human. "What do you say to David Beckham? 'Put the penalty in the other corner?'

"We did a fantastic game, if you take away the last three minutes of injury-time.

"The players did exactly what we had asked them to do," he said. "If I should do it again, I would do it in the same way.

"In the dressing-room, the players were not singing or talking. Of course, it wasn't a party. But knowing the English mentality, I think the players will be looking forward to Thursday."

Eriksson has revealed Paul Scholes has only a 50-50 chance of facing Switzerland on Thursday.

Owen Hargreaves or Nicky Butt are the most likely replacements, although a recall for Butt would mean Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard moving back to the left flank, while Kieron Dyer and Joe Cole are further options.

The England coach, who will have John Terry fit again to recall to the defence, nevertheless admitted Scholes is "doubtful".