England

0-0

Portugal


aet. 0-0 90 mins. Portugal win 3-1 on penalties

Saturday 01 July 2006
World Cup, Quarter-Final
Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen

02 July 2006
VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Sven's final press conference
Sven talks to the media for the last time a day after England were knocked out of the World Cup.
Sven-Goran Eriksson has urged the English public to treasure Wayne Rooney and not to castigate him for being sent off against Portugal.

Eriksson gave the final press conference of his five-and-a-half year reign as England Head Coach here in Baden-Baden and once again Rooney was the hot topic.

The Manchester United man was handed a red card during England’s quarter-final defeat in Gelsenkirchen for a challenge on Ricardo Carvalho - and Eriksson admits that made life very difficult for his team.

But, mindful of memories of the way David Beckham was treated after being sent off against Argentina in 1998, Sven is calling for calm.

Addressing reporters he said: "I think you much more than me for the next years need Wayne Rooney. So pay attention please. He is the golden boy of English football, don’t kill him - I beg you - because you will need him.

"Wayne Rooney is a fantastic football player. If he did it with intention or not - leave it. You need him for the qualification games and you need him to win Euro 2008.

"He has his temperament but I have no hard feelings against him at all and you shouldn’t have, either."

Eriksson, of course, will step down from his role as England Head Coach after today’s flight home from Germany and can start thinking about his future.

He said: "I’m going on holiday, if that will be a couple of weeks or a year I don’t know. It’s time for me from tomorrow to sort out things. I haven’t had any intention during my stay in Germany to talk to anyone, I said no to everyone. But tomorrow I can start."

Eriksson admits losing on penalties in a World Cup quarter-final it isn’t the way he hoped to round off his England career, but he still believes he leaves the team in good shape.

He said: "We had a very good chance to win the World Cup but we didn’t take it. But I think England will have opportunities in the future because they have a lot of good young players coming through: Walcott, Lennon, Downing, they will be even better in two years time so I think the future is very good.

"I have enjoyed every minute of the job and I have been very proud to have it."