Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said his team was overly ambitious in the first half but praised second half efforts which accumulated in a 2-2 draw with England on Tuesday. "We had problems in the first half, England played well, but we were too ambitious. We lost too many one-on-ones," he said of their final Group B game. Despite the troubling first half performance Lagerback was pleased with Sweden's efforts to reclaim the game from the English. "At half-time I told them to be a bit more cool. I felt we were the better team in the second half, England were in the first," Lagerback said. The squad took Lagerback's instructions to heart, with Marcus Allback heading the World Cup's 2000th goal just minutes into the second half and Henrik Larsson's stunning 90th minute goal equalizing the game. "I wasn't surprised that we put them under pressure towards the end," Lagerback said of his team's second half rally. "We practiced set-pieces a little bit more and I was pleased we could score two goals from them," the Swede explained. Lagerback claimed Germany has a solid defense and strong attack which Sweden will have to get around. The head boss remained cautious about the upcoming match.
Michael Owen "It will be a really tough game for us," he said. While Lagerback looks ahead, England's Sven-Goran Eriksson was left ruing his luck after Michael Owen's injury. Eriksson was also concerned with the numerous defensive mistakes and was critical of the team's faltering play after the interval. "We did very well in the first half, but started badly in the second," he said. "We must defend better at set-pieces – we scored two fantastic goals but it was a little annoying to concede two from set-pieces." While critical of the team's performance, Eriksson was pleased England won top ranking in Group B and commented on the upcoming round of 16 match against Ecuador. "We must defend better on Sunday (against Ecuador) but the important thing was to win the group, which we've done," he said. The Swede-born Eriksson also had some sage advice for his home country's first round of 16 game. "I spoke to Lars Lagerback after the game about the Germany match and said, 'Knock them out'."
