England's tournament began with a nightmare - conceding two goals in injury time to lose to France after being 1-0 up and seemingly in control.

But goalkeeper James believes that defeat could turn out to be a blessing in disguise as the Three Lions start to think seriously about going all the way to the final.

England's recovery since that game has been remarkable - three goals against Switzerland, four against Croatia and every member of the squad looking sharp and on form.

James said: "Everything has worked out right for us. If we'd beaten France and then Switzerland, Croatia would have been an easy game and maybe certain players would have been rested, which might not have been the best thing going into the quarter-final. It could have been detrimental.

"Now we go into the game against Portugal with momentum and we are coming into form and the players are getting more and more of an understanding.

"I thought it was a good performance against Croatia.There were one or two things we weren't happy with - the two goals were from set plays and that was a bit of a weakness, but then again Croatia have scored a lot of goals in those situations.

"But overall the team performance was solid and realistically we could have scored five or six if it hadn't been for their keeper. And the main thing is that we are through to the quarter-finals, it's where we wanted to be."

James is one of the most analytical and self-critical members of the England squad, so his verdict on a performance is always worth hearing. But there was little for him to complain about after Monday's superb 4-2 victory.

He said: "The performance overall was very good, very encouraging. We had a good performance against France but it was frustrating because we didn't get any points. So it was satisfying that we had both this time.

"The goal that Croatia scored early on made up our minds that we had to go and get a win. If we didn't win the game we would have been out. We didn't concede deliberately, but once we fell behind we had no option but to go out and score and try to win the game.

"There were other positives for us, too. Paul Scholes hadn't scored for a while, but he got one at the right time against Croatia. And Michael Owen, while he didn't score, he was always involved and it's encouraging that everyone is doing their bit for the team.

"And Rooney? Yet again he did his bit for the team. We can go on forever about how good he is, but as long as he performs right that is all we are worried about. He's a special player and played a big part in the victory.

"The manager said beforehand that we could not play for a goalless draw, and that was obvious once Croatia scored. We couldn't worry about what others were doing, it was all about what we were doing and the message was to qualify, which is what we have done.

"There were a few tired legs towards the end of the second half, but that was only to be expected after the way we played. It's a knockout tournament so the main thing is to get through. Now we can start to think about the quarter-final."