Capello remains upbeat
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008
Fabio Capello remained positive despite suffering his first defeat since becoming England Manager.
France 1-0 England
International Friendly
8pm, Wednesday 26 March 2008
Stade de France, Paris
Live on Sky Sports
Fabio Capello remained positive about England's performance in Paris despite his team losing to Franck Ribery's first half penalty.
The loss is the Italian's first in only his second game in charge of England.
"I'm actually quite happy because I've seen an improvement," he said. "We played against a top level country and I think we did well.
"The way we played, the way we didn't let the opponents play too much, and especially the fact that we played with personality.
"We did especially well in the first half. Unfortunately we conceded the goal."
David James felled Nicolas Anelka in the box and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot. But Capello defended the Portsmouth stopper.
"I didn't see it clearly but I don't think he could have done better than that."
Capello made six changes, including replacing David Beckham with David Bentley, and insisted the substitutions are vital as he moulds the team for the future.
"I need to see all players play, especially in real matches like this one in order to have a clearer idea about how the players will do in the (World Cup) qualifying campaign. I hope England will be ready by August 20."
France
23 Gregory Coupet, 3 Eric Abidal, 5 William Gallas, 5 Claude Makelele, 7 Florent Malouda, 8 Jeremy Toulalan, Francois Clerc, Lilian Thuram (c), 20 David Trezeguet (10 Sidney Govou 64), 22 Franck Ribery, 39 Nicolas Anelka
Subs not used 1 Mickael Landreau, 4 Philippe Mexes, 9 Djibril Cisse, 17 Sebastien Squillaci, 18 Alou Diarra, 21 Mathieu Flamini, 27 Patrice Evra
Goals
Ribery 32 pen
England
1 David James, 2 Wes Brown (13 Glen Johnson 63), 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Owen Hargreaves, 5 Rio Ferdinand (c), 6 John Terry (14 Joleon Lescott 46), 7 David Beckham (16 David Bentley 63), 8 Gareth Barry, 9 Wayne Rooney (18 Michael Owen 46), 10 Steven Gerrard (19 Peter Crouch 46), 11 Joe Cole (17 Stewart Downing 46)
Subs not used 12 Paul Robinson, 15 Wayne Bridge, 20 Theo Walcott, 21 Robert Green
Match Officials
Referee Florian Meyer (German)
Assistants Sonke Glindmann and Mark Borsch (Both German)
