3 September 2005
TheFA.com Interview: Sven-Goran Eriksson

In an exclusive interview with TheFA.com, Sven looks back on the game and analyses the new formation.


Head Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed the attitude of his England players after they bounced back from defeat against Denmark to beat Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

Whilst Sven felt the Three Lions' performance was 'up and down', he knows that notching up three points in the World Cup Qualifier was all important.

He said: "The importance of the win is enormous. We have one more win, three more points, and if we go on like this we will win the group.

"Now we have three games to go and I hope we can win on Wednesday to start with. I hope that we will qualify for the World Cup as that is our target.

"The performance was up and down. First half we did well and maybe we should have scored a couple of goals.

"Second half should have been easier. We suffered at the end of the match with a lot of long balls coming into our box but suffering in football is good if you have the right attitude and we had that today.

And Sven felt the new formation, which saw Wayne Rooney as a lone striker flanked by Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole, had proved useful.

"Sometimes I think we can use the new formation," he said. "During long periods we played OK and created opportunities.

"We knew it would be a difficult game and it will be on Wednesday as well. We knew it would be difficult here as Wales fought for every ball and it was important to win. 

"The boys did very well and they fought for 90 minutes and they got the right result."