Albania made us suffer says Eriksson
( 2001-09-06 11:17 ) (7 )

Sven Goran Eriksson paid tribute to his England side after they went top of their World Cup qualifying group on Wednesday but said they suffered more in 15 minutes against Albania than in 90 against Germany.

England's laboured 2-0 victory over Albania at St James Park, following their 5-1 demolition of Germany at the weekend, has catapulted them to the top of group nine on goal difference.

Victory over Greece on October 6 at Old Trafford, while Germany are playing Finland, would almost certainly seal England's place in next year's finals in Japan and South Korea.

Eriksson was delighted with the final outcome on Wednesday but said his team could learn from a second-half display during which Albania at times played better than an England side who seemed almost scared to have the ball.

"I think we played rather good football in the first half, created a lot of chances, could have scored more goals than we did, and if we had scored twice, maybe three times, the game should have been over after 45 minutes," he said.

"Halfway into the second half, I think we lost control of the game a little, they came out very well, they played maybe better than we did for 10 or 15 minutes and they had really a very good chance, a good shot from their left side. David Seaman made a very good save.

STRANGE GAME

"Football is strange," Eriksson said. "I think during that 15 minutes we suffered more than we did in Germany during the whole 90 minutes."

The England manager blamed a mixture of English tiredness and Albanian skill for the problems which surfaced in the form of poor passing and a failure to keep possession.

"The game in Germany on Saturday cost a lot of energy, physically and mentally, and another factor is Albania," he said.

"They lost in the last minute away to Germany, they lost after 70, 75 minutes against Greece away and had good chances. You should never think, even if they are not top of the group, that it's a bad team. "They know how to play football and do it rather well."

Before Wednesday's match, Eriksson had said that to prove they were a great team, England had to follow up their sensational win over Germany with another two victories over Albania and Greece. Despite the poor performance midway through the second half at St James' Park, he insisted "I think we showed a little bit that we are a great team.

"We won 2-0, we controlled the game except for 15 minutes maybe and created a lot of chances -- I think they created maybe one good one and some half-chances.

ENGLAND SUFFERED

"You can't expect teams to go out and perform and score five goals every time in international football...okay, we suffered for 15 minutes, but the important thing is to win the game and they did it."

Looking ahead to England's chances of the automatic qualification slot, he said: "Now we know that it depends a lot on us, and it has not been that way so far. Of course, it's very, very good. Excellent."

However, the Swede also believes there is still work to do on England's game. "It seemed like we were a little bit afraid to keep the ball when we were suffering," he said.

"The ball came up but it came back even quicker. So hopefully we will learn a little bit from this game also."

And he is not expecting an easy time either at Old Trafford, despite Greece's 5-1 defeat in Finland in another qualifier on Wednesday.

"It does not mean that Greece will come to England and give us a victory," he warned. "They will not."