Owen's double in the last three minutes helped England beat Argentina 3-2 and left Sven on a high.

"What can you say about him?" the England Head Coach asked. "If he has three chances he will score at least two, that's Michael Owen.

"Always in these big games he's there. I don't know if he's the best but he's one of the best. He's shown that over many years."

England have been installed as joint second-favourites for next summer's World Cup finals alongside Germany and Argentina - just behind Brazil. And no wonder after a wonderful display of attacking football.

Eriksson said: "It was a great performance and a great result. It was a very, very good football match from both sides. There were a lot of chances and a lot of good football.

"It was important for the confidence of the fans and maybe also for the world rankings. If you talk about big football countries, I think they have a lot of respect for our players."

The only concern for England was that Argentina created so many chances, especially in the first half.

"We struggled in the beginning if the match," admitted Eriksson. "They were very aggressive and we had problems keeping the ball, but we came into the game more and more.

"We tried to play a normal 4-4-2 with Ledley King in there rather than a diamond, but of course Frank Lampard will always play more forward than King.

"The problem in the first half was that our wide players stayed wide even when we were defending, and Argentina are very good at playing the ball in to Riquelme and the two strikers in the central areas. But that got better."

Eriksson was also delighted with substitute Peter Crouch, who came on and made a difference in the final minutes.

He said: "We wanted to win the game by bringing on Crouch up front. I wanted the crowd to stop booing him and he showed once again that he is a special player. He was very important in Owen's two late goals."