England need defensive homework, admits Eriksson

COLOGNE, June 21: Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said England badly need to improve their defending at set pieces after being caught out twice in a pulsating 2-2 draw with Sweden in Group B yesterday.

England were on course for their first win over the Swedes since 1968 before striker Henrik Larsson steered home a 90th minute equaliser from a long throw-in.

Sweden finished second in the group behind England and on Saturday will play Germany, who topped Group A by beating Ecuador 3-0 earlier yesterday. England will face the South Americans on Sunday.

''We didn't defend well at set pieces. We will have to work on that before the next game. Sweden are very strong at that but anyhow, we have to do that better in the future,'' said an annoyed Eriksson.

''Normally, we concede very little on set pieces but today two goals...of course we have to do better because we cannot concede goals like that.

''But the most important thing was to win the group and I'm very happy about that. That's what we wanted to do.'' Asked about Wayne Rooney, who was clearly angry at being substituted midway through the second half, Eriksson said: ''I think he was more upset with himself, that he didn't play as well as he wanted to in the second half.

''But he's getting better and better and he played for longer than he did last time and he will play better and better. I took him off because I can't risk him getting injured.

''Rooney could have played for longer but it was the first game from the start and the second he's playing -- I can't risk overworking him. I don't want to miss him.'' As for the team's overall performance, Eriksson said: ''We started badly in the second half and we let them play a lot of long balls close to our box and then we suffered.

''We scored two fantastic goals and it's a little bit annoying to concede from a corner and a long throw-in.'' Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said England were the better team in the first half when they took a 1-0 lead through a magnificent Joe Cole volley but felt his side dominated the second period.

''England played very well in the first half,'' Lagerback said. ''We wanted to win the ball too early and lost many one-on-one situations. It was better in the second half.

''We almost deserved three points. We were the better team in the second half.''

REUTERS