England stars full of praise for Sven’s men

England stars of the past were united in praise for Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team after an heroic 1-0 World Cup win over Argentina in Sapporo.

David Beckham’s penalty just before half-time proved crucial as England laid to rest memories of two previous World Cup exits at the hands of the Argentinians.

David Platt, who himself was no stranger to scoring important goals for England, reckons Eriksson and his heroes did brilliantly under the circumstances.

The England Under-21 coach told Sky Sports News: ‘‘Right through the 90 minutes Sven got his tactics exactly right against the Argentinians.

‘‘It’s alright getting tactics on a piece of paper right, but the boys have got to go on a pitch and perform and I thought they did that.

‘‘Full credit to the players and the management team for getting a result like that when everything is against you.

‘‘When Sweden got their victory against Nigeria earlier today people were talking about a must-win-game and a draw would have been a good result for us, but obviously by taking the three points tonight it is excellent.’’

England’s World Cup winner of 1966 Alan Ball was also unable to hide his excitement at England’s stunning success.

He enthused: ‘‘They came out in the second half and made lots of chances. They thoroughly deserved to win.

‘‘The way we played was the English way, they worked their tails off. I am fed up of people saying ‘the Irish spirit’. This country is a fighting country. Those people are paid to fight and scrap.’’

Former England and Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon claimed the win had restored pride to the country.

He felt the team had let the nation down with their disappointing performance in the 1-1 draw against Sweden, but he reckons they can now hold their heads high with the Irish - who also look set for the group stages.

‘‘I was delighted with that,’’ McMahon told PA Sport.

‘‘They have put a lot of pride back into the country. After a very poor performance against Sweden we actually showed what we are all about and we have done ourselves proud. We more than matched the Irish the other night.

‘‘We’re a good team at the end of the day and we didn’t show that against Sweden which was disappointing.

‘‘I think the words from Sven were to just go out and be ourselves. There’s no point trying to defend and be negative because we can’t do it.

‘‘We’ve got too many good players to defend and we didn’t do that today. We had pride, passion and commitment which is what we all wanted.’’

McMahon also claimed that England ‘‘grabbed the bull by the horns’’ and had given their great rivals some of their own medicine.

The Blackpool manager added: ‘‘It’s not about Sven, it’s about the players. He can pick formations, but he made only one change from the team against Sweden.

‘‘So it’s not as if he has made three or four changes. He’s made one change which was tactical and it worked, but I just think we took the bull by the horns and we gave the Argies a bit of their own medicine.

‘‘We got stuck into them and they tried to rough us up a little bit early doors. We didn’t let them put us off and we were the better team for an hour.

‘‘Okay, we were anxious for the first 20 minutes and 15 late on, but we’ve defended brilliantly and the two central defenders and Nicky Butt were fantastic.

‘‘We can play football and the bonus is we showed a bit of passion. We got the crowd behind us and the nation behind us a bit like Ireland.

‘‘We are a better team than Ireland, but they have that passion and commitment and we need to show that much passion in every game.’’

But McMahon has moved quickly to urge the country not to get carried away by this victory.

He still thinks that Nigeria are capable of pulling off a shock, but he is keeping his fingers crossed that England can now finish the job next week and that France and Argentina crash out in the group stages.

McMahon added: ‘‘If they don’t go on and beat Nigeria and go on a run then it will be such an anti-climax because everyone’s up for it now.

‘‘I just hope that they don’t just get carried away and now all of a sudden we are going to win the World Cup because we beat Argentina.

‘‘France haven’t won a game yet and they’re still in the tournament. They can easily qualify, Spain have had two wins and there are a lot of good teams.

‘‘My only hope is that France don’t qualify and Argentina don’t qualify. It will be sad World Cup to the viewers in South Korea and Japan, but for me and England it won’t.’’

Former England striker Mick Channon, attending the day’s racing at Epsom, claimed Eriksson’s men ‘‘murdered’’ Argentina today.

Channon told BBC1: ‘‘To be fair if it hadn’t been for the Argentinian goalkeeper they would have beaten them 3-0 wouldn’t they?

‘‘They absolutely murdered them apart from the last 10 minutes, but they had to hang on sooner or later.

‘‘But it was a great team performance and I thought they all pulled together. It was a great game to watch and a great atmosphere.’’

Channon breathed a sigh of relief as Beckham’s penalty hit the back of the net and he confessed it was one of the ‘‘worst’’ the England midfielder had ever taken.

He continued: ‘‘I was with Harry Bassett at the time and I said ‘he’s going to blast this.’

‘‘But it was probably the worst penalty kick he’s ever taken. The whole place (Epsom) went crazy.’’

England now need to avoid defeat against Nigeria next week to go through, but Channon warned them against complacency.

He insisted: ‘‘That’s not going to be easy. I don’t think any game is easy because this is football and America beat Portugal and Senegal beat France.’’

Another former England star Ray Wilkins felt Nicky Butt was the man of the match, but that all the team were heroes.

He said: ‘‘I had no question they would do it. It was fantastic.

‘‘I thought our boys were terrific, each and every one of them. Nicky Butt for me was the star man, but the whole team just worked as a unit and were aggressive. It was fantastic stuff.’’

The former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder reckons England will now be too fired-up to slip up against Nigeria next week.

‘‘I sincerely hope that is the case,’’ added Wilkins. ‘‘It will be a tough game for them and with the Nigerians having gone out of the tournament earlier today they will play with this carefree attitude they have.

‘‘They can cause teams problems because they are talented footballers, but I’m sure our guys will be so wound up for it that they will beat them.’’

England 1966 Word Cup-winning full-back George Cohen also heaped praise on the performance of Eriksson’s men.

He said: ‘‘We were under the cosh for half an hour, but we coped well with it and did very well. We kept our heads very well indeed.’’

Wilkins declared that today’s victory was a ‘‘massive feather’’ in the England team’s caps and had given them the belief that they can go big in Japan and Korea.

Argentina had been tipped by many to go all the way to the final, but the former AC Milan favourite feels confidence will now be sky-high in the English camp.

‘‘I sincerely hope they do go on from that,’’ said Wilkins. ‘‘I don’t see why they shouldn’t because Argentina are one the sides fancied to win it and we beat them.

‘‘That is a massive feather in this side’s caps. Belief is what it’s all about. We haven’t won an international football match for a long time now.

‘‘It was Paraguay the last time we won at Anfield and to be perfectly honest Paraguay were very poor that night.

‘‘But before that we hadn’t won a game in something like five games so it was imperative that we got back on the winning trail and we’ve done ever so well to win and hopefully that will spur the boys on.

‘‘There’s no reason why we shouldn’t go on - just bring on Nigeria really. Sven’s made big decisions at big times and I’m very proud of him and them.’’