22 June 2006
VIDEO: England training pre-Ecuador
Watch the England players in action as they prepare for their second round game with Ecuador on Sunday.

England v Ecuador
Round of 16, World Cup 2006
4pm, Sunday 25 June
Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart

England will step up their preparation for the knockout stages of the World Cup by staging extra penalty practice.

The Three Lions are confident of beating Ecuador in normal time on Sunday but the last 16 match could potentially go to penalties if things do not go to plan.

Having been knocked out of Euro 2004, Euro 96, France 98 and Italia 90 on penalties England know all about how that feels. So this time nothing is being left to chance.

Head Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said: "We started practising a long time ago, when we were still in England. And we are going to practice it at least twice maybe three times before we meet Ecuador.

"I would say we know who are five main takers are. But the problem is - are they on the pitch after the 120 minutes? You never know that, so you have to prepare ten or eleven players for that, even more.

"So we have practiced it a lot and we are going to do it again. And if we go through a penalty shootout, I hope we will do better than we did in the last tournament, of course!"

England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has already told TheFA.com that he is hugely confident in his ability to save penalties - and leaves no stone unturned in his preparation.

But it isn’t just the keepers who will be helped by England goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence in the build-up to the Ecuador game.

Sven said: "Ray will know before the game which way their goalkeeper dives, that’s for sure. He always takes care of that and knows the last 10 penalties and also the team’s penalty takers."

It won’t just be penalties on the agenda at England training on Friday, however. Sven has also planned a major defensive session after watching his team concede two goals from set pieces against Sweden.

"First on the table will be defending set pieces because that was awful. I’m quite sure it will not happen again," he insisted.

"In the dressing room there’s a board like a football pitch and on it is written ‘you mark him, you mark him and you mark him’

"It’s written, also, all the positions where they should stay. So, I don’t know what happened against Sweden - we did it poorly. That’s OK in a game like that but it can’t be ok in the future."