Tonight, England play Sweden at Wembley following their victory over Spain on Saturday at the same venue. England will go into the game with a lot of confidence after beating the current world and European champions, however it is my opinion that the only part of the England team who should feel happy about the win is the defence.
Scott Parker was fantastic in defensive midfield alongside Phil Jones, (yes, Fabio Capello actually put a centre back in defensive midfield against Spain) it proved to be the correct decision though, as Jones played quite well in a position unfamiliar to him.
The two centre backs Jagielka and Lescott revived their old Everton partnership and kept the Spain attacks at bay and when they couldn't do so, Joe Hart was able to stop the world champions from scoring.
For once, Glen Johnson stayed in his right back position and didn't venture down the right wing and Ashley Cole proved why he has been hailed as the best left back in the country.
I think the main reason why England beat Spain was that England treated it as a tournament game i.e. assuming they were the underdogs from the start and defending well. They took their chance to score and managed to keep Spain a bay for the next 40 minutes or so.
In recent tournaments, England seemed to have played as if it were a league season (a series of matches where if you draw or lose, it doesn't really matter because there are a lot more matches to come), however in tournament football you have to treat each game individually and basically just play like England did against Spain. Spain may have won the World Cup in 2010, but in their last 3 games of the tournament, they only scored 3 goals. This just goes to show that you don't need to score millions (a slight exaggeration) of goals to win an international tournament - you just need to defend well and score 1 goal per game. It just goes to show that "If you don't concede, you don't lose". Maybe that's where we've always gone wrong in international football, we don't defend well enough.
Sadly, everyone watching the Sweden game tonight will have to endure John Terry playing, as Capello re-instates Terry as captain (after dropping him and making Lampard captain against Spain). It's likely that Terry will play alongside Gary Cahill in central defence, maybe with new boy Kyle Walker at right back and Leighton Baines at left back. I hope Capello goes by his word and actually uses the young defenders that he's able to use and not just stick with Johnson and Cole (they're good players - but there needs to be a change).
The midfield lineup is easier to predict, with Parker and Lampard assured of spots in the first XI after good showings on Saturday, maybe accompanied by Jack Rodwell and Downing on the left and right respectively.
Daniel Sturridge will be itching to make his first start for the Three Lions after impressing so far this season for Chelsea. Bobby Zamora looks like being given a place in the starting XI after a relatively poor performance by Darren Bent on Saturday.
Even with 8 changes being made, England should still be wary of over-confidence and the threat that Ibrahimovic and Elmander possess.
Prediction: 2 - 1
TB 2011
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