Rio Ferdinand, fresh from his heroic display alongside the rest of the England defence in Sapporo, is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

"It's just early stages yet," said the Leeds man. "We've only played two games. We've had an important win against Argentina but we don't want to get carried away at all."

Rio has been the subject of great praise both from Sven-Goran Eriksson and a host of other observers following the win against Argentina.

"It's nice for the manager to say that," he said, "but you don't become a world-class player overnight. It's going to take more than one game to do that. Consistency is definitely the key in that.

"We have defended well as a unit and as a team though. You want to be playing in games where there is loads of pressure, the fans are going crazy and there are big expectations on you.

"The results breed a lot of confidence in the squad and the belief is definitely rising.

Looking further ahead, Rio knows that there are great challenges along with the way - starting with Nigeria in Osaka.

"We want to go through to the final but we know that if we are going to do that, we will have to play some of the big teams.

"Some might go out, although I think it still will be a tough route to the final. But our boys will thrive under that sort of pressure."

See more of Rio's press conference by visiting our video section.