The mighty Germans who cuntstuffed Serbia?

You really don't want England to do well do you?

LOL - where are the Capello knockers now?

Goes with the much-maligned 4-4-2 and England (when the nerves don't get to them) play the opposition off the park.
Picks Defoe and Milner and a) they combine superbly for the winner and b) the latter has a stormer.

Cole - who Lampard claims is above all but Rooney in his ability to "unlock" a defence and the fans argue we cannot live without - comes on - surprise, surprise - is a total liability.

Sure, we had a couple of scary moments - but given the pressure that's understandable. The important thing is we dealt with the problems in the best fashion possible.

The only thing holding us back is nerves - as was evidenced when time started winding down and the pressure rose exponentially.

Listening to Five-Live in the aftermath I couldn't believe the number of numpties who came on to slag off the team and Capello.

As is usual - the gutless Alan Green framed the theme of the phone-in by either castigating anyone who had faith in England or cutting them off.

"But ... but ... we should have beaten Algeria and won the group (thus avoiding potential games with Germany, Spain and Argentina)" - as if that could EVER be a certainty with England, a team crippled by over thirty years of failure, overly optimistic goals and the media, which all but wears the shirt of our opponents each tournament. Besides, whoever heard of an easy set of fixtures to the finals?

In Fabio we trust! Onwards and upwards!

Not bothered. But the German's actually bettered Serbia despite having 10 men, it was pretty poor officiating that got Klose the red, too.

We have had by far and out the easiest group of all, yet we haven't shown anything near to a 'complete' performance. We've not put in a performance of high quality yet, even today we couldn't sustain pressure and get the second goal. I'm just not convinced by the team yet, today was much improved but still not up to the 'expectations' or 'standards' of what's expected from this team.

Today was a lot better than the last couple of games though our inability to put teams away could come back to haunt us. We should have been out of site today but instead we were clinging on towards the end. I think we need to improve again to make it through to the last 8.
Also, how much better was Joe Cole when he wasn't playing

I actually think the way we had to dig in and grind out that victory will set us up nicely for the knockout stages...That's exactly what sort of thing we will need to do at some stage as we progress.

Towards the latter stages there will be no 'putting teams away' by two or three goal margins, there will be times where we have to have our backs to the wall and the way many players absolutely ran themselves into the ground today and fought for each other shows me we're up for the fight.

Totally agree with Mugwump...where are all the Capello knockers now?

His handling of the Terry situation was first class and Terry responded with a fantastic performance. Where France got it wrong Capello and England got it right.

His changes all worked...

Milner, after a somewhat shaky start was outstanding putting in 3 or 4 World class deliveries and torturing the full back all game. His workrate was exceptional and maturity at the end to run down the clock was first class.

Defoe, although could have been a bit more involved for me, came in and did what he needed to and got his goal.

Upson, an enforced change I know but even though he lacks pace like Carragher he seems to be a lot more of a calming influence, very comfortable in possession and got in a very timely tackle to prevent an excellent scoring opportunity near the death.

James, Had the best game for England I can recall him having for a long time...nothing too serious needed to be done, but coped with most things with ease and probably gave his back four that bit more confidence with how he dealt with things throughout.

Gerrard, on the left...still managed to roam about enough and had an excellent game showing he can be effective in that role.

Joe Cole, as has been said didn't really produce what everyone else was screaming about, but could still be an ace in the pack later on IMO.

All in all an excellent performance I thought and huge credit to Capello and the players for once after all the stick they've had previously...

If we win the next 4 games winning 1-0 playing like that I won't care.

Some of our last ditch defending tonight was incredible.

The replay image of John Terry throwing himself head-first at the ball to try block a shot was the personification of commitment.

Typical, England finallly start playing when I'm stuck at work! Still, yours truly did not totally miss the match, I actually managed to commandeer a radio and spent all afternoon listening.

So Germany, Ghana, Australia or Serbia, who's next?

I couldn't understand the number of loonies on Five-Live who thought Rooney had a bad game. Sure, he wasn't the outstanding player he has been for the last few years, but he didn't have a BAD game. I thought he linked the play quite well at times and it took and outstanding save to deny him the goal he certainly needs to boost his confidence.

As for coming second in the group - whose to say Argentina, Germany & Spain will all make it? Many a good side has gone out early in the World Cup. Especially through the dreaded penalty shoot-out.

And imagine the distilled GLORY of beating Maradona's Argentina & Beckenbauer's "England play kick and rush" Germany in the same tournament!

What player or fan would rather other meaningless fixtures?

How could any game in the World Cup be considered meaningless?

Agree on Rooney. He wasn't at his best but he far from shocking. Getting subbed with 15 to go proves to me he had been carrying an injury, that almost certainly won't have helped his Algeria performance, but is slowly starting to get some confidence back. Whether he has enough to get us through the latter stages of this World Cup remains to be seen.

Before i get accused of been negative etc. I want England to win this World Cup as much as the next man. I just think we still need to improve greatly to be a genuine threat.

If we get the Germans, Capello should get Keegan in to help with the team talk. In response to Der Kaiser, "I'd love it, I'd really love it...."