Soccer: England sweep into quarter finals

1:30am

NIIGATA, Japan - England, inspired by captain David Beckham, have swaggered into the quarter-finals of the World Cup after crushing Denmark 3-0 in a pulsating second round clash.


Striker Michael Owen scored his first goal of the tournament, central defender Rio Ferdinand scored his first goal for England and Emile Heskey added a third as Sven-Goran Eriksson's side tore Denmark's much-vaunted defence to shreds in under 45 minutes.


The comprehensive victory on Saturday matched England's morale-boosting 1-0 win over archrivals and pre-tournament favourites Argentina in the group stages and sets them up for a quarter-final against either Brazil or Belgium.

"I think we deserved it. Maybe we were a little bit lucky. Maybe 3-0 is too much but we won it and we are in the quarter finals," England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said.

"We have done our job. We won 3-0," Beckham said. "I am very proud of the players tonight - as a young team we were not afraid to play football. We get on with our game and we don't bother who we come up against."

England are now joint second favourites behind Brazil to win the World Cup. Brazil are 5-2, England and Spain are 4-1.

The first half was a nightmare for Denmark, with goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen found wanting on two of the goals and defender Thomas Helveg forced to leave the field with a head injury following Ferdinand's 5th minute goal.

"Just before halftime we made a mistake and the match is over because to score three goals against England is almost impossible," Danish coach Morten Olsen said.

England scored only two goals in their three group games and on Saturday they won the crucial battle in midfield, thanks largely to an outstanding Nicky Butt.

Ferdinand and Sol Campbell, earning his 50th cap as did substitute Teddy Sheringham, marshalled a defence which at times rode its luck but has conceded only one goal in its four games.

England made a dream start when Sorensen, who plays for Sunderland in the English premier league, bundled Ferdinand's sideways header over the line from a Beckham corner in the fifth minute.

"I work on those every day, crossing the ball, corners and freekicks, and it's nice when one comes off," Beckham said. "When you've got guys like Rio and Sol, big lads in there, you can put it right on top of their heads."

Ferdinand was delighted. "It was brilliant to get on the score-sheet today but it was important that we got through and we managed to do that," he said.

Sorensen made up for the howler by denying striker Heskey, but was helpless in the 22nd minute when Owen spun round to finish off a neat three-man move in the area from five metres.
Heskey made it three in the 44th minute, crashing home a first-time shot from the edge of the area after neatly being picked out by Beckham.

Ebbe Sand should have pulled one back for the Danes after dodging past both Ferdinand and Campbell, only to skew his low shot wide of the right-hand post.

England refused to sit back in the second half, with Sorensen forced to tip over a dipping 25-metre drive from Beckham, while Denmark searched in vain for a game they had already lost.

England last reached the quarter-finals in 1990, before Germany knocked them out in the semi-finals on penalties.

It was England's 11th competitive unbeaten match, a run stretching back to their opening World Cup qualifier in October 2000, when they lost 1-0 to Germany in the last match at Wembley.

Denmark, who eliminated defending champions France in the group stage, failed to score for the first time in a World Cup finals match. It was their 13th finals game.

Eriksson said Brazil, who play Belgium on Monday, were looking strong. "I think with how they are playing at this moment they are one of the favourites."

Beckham said it did not matter who England played. "Both teams are good teams but whoever we play we're in the quarter-finals and we're happy."

Eriksson said Owen had come off in the second half with a groin strain. "We don't think it's a bad one and he'll be available for the next game."

He said midfielder Paul Scholes had twisted an ankle. "Again, it's not too bad," he added.
"Now we have six days before the next game. We have time to rest, recover and heal the injuries," he added.

Earlier Germany became the first team to reach the quarter-finals, with a 1-0 defeat of Paraguay.

REUTERS

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