Capello seeks more bite despite Three Lions win

ENGLAND midfielder Steven Gerrard revealed manager Fabio Capello had demanded more aggression from the team at half-time as England secured a 3-1 friendly win over Mexico at Wembley last night.

Mexico were allowed to dominate possession in the first half, although England went in 2-1 ahead at the interval after goals following set-pieces from Ledley King and Peter Crouch.

Guillermo Franco scored on the stroke of half-time before a superlative effort from Glen Johnson early in the second period put the game beyond the visitors.

“The manager wanted more aggression from the whole team,” Gerrard said afterwards.

“They had too much possession in the first half, we stood off them and let them play. In the second half we got in their faces and stopped them playing. We need to be more aggressive.

“We need to be able to adapt to different formations during a game and also for different opposition, that’s down to the manager and what he decides to go with.

“We can play better than we did tonight, there’s still time to sharpen up and we’ll go (to South Africa) and give it our best shot.”

King, making his first England appearance for almost three years, said: “It was tough out there. They’re a good side, they move the ball quickly and the manager made his feelings known at half-time that we weren’t getting tight enough but we came out in the second half and did a lot better.

“The knee is getting better, the more I play the better I get.”

Asked whether he could cope with the tough schedule in the World Cup, King added: “I’ve done it this season (with Tottenham) so why not?”

Meanwhile Argentina were comfortable in their World Cup warm-up clash as they thumped Canada 5-0. Liverpool’s Maxi Rodriguez grabbed two and there were also goals for Angel Di Maria – who is poised to join Real Madrid – Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez and Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero.

Portugal’s warm-up schedule has had a miserable start as they were held 0-0 by tiny African side Cape Verde.

ENGLAND: Green (Hart 46), Glen Johnson, Ferdinand (Carragher 46), King, Baines, Walcott (Lennon 77), Gerrard, Carrick (Huddlestone 61), Milner (Adam Johnson 85), Crouch (Defoe 46), Rooney.

MEXICO: Perez, Juarez, Aguilar (Barrera 52), Marquez, Salcido, Osorio, Torrado, Rodriguez, Giovani (Blanco 72), Franco (Hernandez 46), Vela (Guardado 62).

Ref: Masaaki Toma (Japan).