By MSN’s Lee Harvey
Last updated: June 16 2006
Day 7: Wins for England, Sweden and Ecuador as some bloke from Liverpool makes an appearance off the bench
Late double sends England th-roo
Late goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard put England into the last 16 after they had looked unable to break down a resolute Trinidad and Tobago team that saw strong performances by players from Gillingham, Wrexham and Falkirk reserves.
For 80 minutes, England players seemed to neglect the most basic fundamentals of the game. Aimless passes, poor first touches and little movement off the ball characterised the game. England would have been 1-0 down were it not for a typically heroic John Terry goal line clearance.
The astute tactical switch/desperation move (delete as appropriate) of bringing on Aaron Lennon for Jamie Carragher finally introduced some pace and purpose into England’s attacks. It was Lennon who found David Beckham who produced the perfect cross for Crouch who scored despite the distraction of having a handful of Brent Sancho’s dreads. Having shanked an earlier chance towards the corner flag and copped some flak from the England fans, Crouch wisely kept "the robot" in his locker.
Gerrard then gave the scoreline an undeserved respectability when, in one of his few forward forays, he launched a left foot shot into the top corner from 25 yards that must have given Shaka Hislop flashbacks to the FA Cup final.
This was not a performance to strike fear into the hearts of Argentina and Brazil. Until Eriksson picks a team that utilises the talent of Gerrard to the full, England will continue to struggle. On the flip side, England now have two wins, two clean sheets, a place in the knockout stages and their best player ready to go. Surely things improve from here.
Ecuador soar into second phase
Ecuador cruised through to the knockout stages for the first time in their history with an impressive victory over a Costa Rican side that showed little ambition despite facing elimination from the tournament.
Carlos Tenorio opened the scoring after 8 minutes and the game was killed off with two well taken second half goals. Augustine Delgado now has 2 World Cup goals, double the tally he managed in his two and a half years at Southampton. Substitute Ivan Kaviedes, a former Crystal Palace player, completed the rout in injury time.
Costa Rica now face a meaningless match with Poland before they pack their bags and head home. Ecuador move on and face a potential second round date with England.
Sweden sneak past Paraguay
A last gasp header from Freddie Ljungberg finally ended Sweden’s goal drought and gave them a victory their ambition deserved.
Paraguay seemed happy to play out the draw (mistakenly) safe in the knowledge that they face Trinidad and Tobago in their final group match. In contrast, Sweden went all out for the win. Ibrahimovic and Larsson combined well in the first half. The disgracefully-mulleted Wilhelmsson crashed a Larsson knock down just wide. Second half substitute Allback had a shot cleared off the line.
Ljungberg has claimed that there is an Olaf Mehlberg-inspired conspiracy to deprive him of the ball when he plays for Sweden. Against T&T, he only received 7 passes in 90 minutes. However, his 89th minute run into the Paraguay box saw him in the perfect place to nod Allback’s header past Bobodilla and give Sweden a deserved three points.
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