ENGLAND EDGE INTO QUARTER FINALS

(Image taken from Soccernet)

In the last World Cup in '02, England made it to the second round. However despite beating the Argies in the group stage that year we wound up only in second place. By all rights we should have faced the defending champions France in round 2 as a result but this was the completely mental 2002 World Cup and we wound up facing a post-Laudrup, post-Schmeichal Denmark side instead. Sure enough, the Anglers pub in Teddington went on to celebrate a 3-0 win.

Having said that - the Denmark side of '02 could well have beaten an '06 Ecuador side mainly known for winning high altitude. Only time we played Ecuador, Alf Ramsey was the gaffer and Brian Kidd was the England striker who scored on his debut in a warm up game prior to the 1970 World Cup. 2-0 in Quito. Since then, well they made it to the '02 World Cup but this match is still the biggest in their history - given that they're only supposed to be good at altitude.

As for England, well Owen was out of the tournament and Neville was still injured. Sven was looking to operate with one up front, the one being Wayne Rooney. Owen Hargeves was at right back and Michael Carrick alongside the usual four in midfield. Sven's blatently nowhere near interested in Walcott so another change in formation and fingers crossed at the Gottleib-Daimler Stadium.

Well England had the early attacks but a freekick went nowhere and Ecuador then hammered our goal and soon it became obvious that this was going to be no walkover. Scratch that, it was bringing the 1990 quarter final against Cameroon to mind. Once Carlos Tenario hit the bar I was fully expecting to be taken to extra time - we were certainly still in cruise mode.

Second half and it looked like more of the same but England have made a habit of winning in the low gears in Germany and sure enough in the 61st minute a Becks special found the corner of the Ecuador net and the nutters down the Tower . From there the South Americans didn't put up much resistance, Aaron Lennon got a few minutes of action and sure enough we got the result we needed.

Well in the Frankenstadion things went a bit mental between the Netherlands and Portugal. The Dutch had the opening edge but it was Portugal who hit the first half winner thanks to Maniche. However the match ended nine a side with four players seeing red which leaves Portugal with a squad that can only be described as bomb-damaged.

Elsewhere - well Brazill just cruised over Ghans in Dortmund with Ronaldo now becoming the highest overall scorer in the World Cup. The real tasty match was in Hannover though with France now hitting top gear as they swung things round brilliantly against Spain, giving Zinedine Zidane one last shot at the big time against the sambaistas

So, what do the quarter finals look like?