The match at Shizuoka proved too much for the England team who are now out of the World Cup. Brazil came out on top with a 2-1 win... The Brazilian goals came from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, the second one sneaking in shortly after a David Seaman blunder. England's only goal came from Michael Owen in the 23rd minute. Ronaldinho was sent off soon after his goal for a late challenge on Danny Mills. Eriksson said: "I think we did rather well (in the competition) but I had hoped we would have done a bit better when it was 11 against 10.
"We were tired and Brazil were very good at keeping the ball. "We could not keep the ball and then they had seven or eight players when they won it keeping it. They were better than us. "I had hoped to do better but I think we have learned a lot about many things. "We have a lot of young players in the squad who will be better by the time the European Championships come round. "They will be much better by then. It has been nice but it was disappointing today. Once it was 2-1 we were not strong enough to come back after that." Eriksson put on a brave face and remained positive in spite of the defeat. He claims that his team will have to learn from the experience before coming back, bigger and better, for Euro 2004. Sven went on to say: "I think we learned a lot about many things. There are a lot of young players in the squad and they will get much better. "It's been very nice, but I am very disappointed today because they went 1-1 in the last minute of the first half and after they went 2-1 they weren't strong enough to come back from that. "We could have done better and it's a great pity. "We couldn't keep the ball and they went forward with seven or eight players and when they won the ball they kept it. "They are better than us which is the difference. We could have done better but it wasn't to be." |
