Lampard won the battle with Nicky Butt to clinch a starting place in what Eriksson had promised would be his first-choice team against Japan tonight.

The Chelsea man started in the anchor role and showed some of the form that he showed all season long for the Stamford Bridge side.

Eriksson said: "Frank Lampard deserved his chance and I think he did excellently in the first half.

"We will have to see what will happen. I have not decided yet what to do on 13 June but it looked good for almost all of the first half.

"I wouldn't say that Nicky Butt and Frank Lampard are exactly the same kind of players but I'm sure that Frank can do the job there just as Nicky would have done.''

One positive that Sven will undoubtedly take from the game was that, with all the players still building up their fitness ahead of Euro 2004, England picked up no injuries despite Gary Neville, John Terry and David Beckham going off with the slightest of knocks.

Eriksson explained: "Gary got a knock on his knee and his hip but it shouldn't be a problem.

"John Terry went off because he felt a little bit in his leg but it was nothing special and I am sure what happened today was nothing serious at all.''

Eriksson acknowledged there is plenty of work to do in regard to the players' fitness over the next two weeks.

But he made it clear he would not have any sleepless nights over failing to beat a Japanese team focusing clearly on their own World Cup qualifiers.

He added: "I am sure that on June 13 players like (Wayne) Rooney will be a lot better physically than they were today.

"I gave them nearly 90 minutes for their fitness and some of them got tired. But the day before the France game we will not practice for as long as we did yesterday."