Eriksson still has high hope

Eriksson still has high hopes for his squad in Germany despite a barrage of criticism following the underwhelming style of their qualification.

He added: "We have qualified and now let's see what happens at the World Cup. I still believe we are going to do very well out there in Germany."

"Of course it depends on injuries for England as with any country. We will cross our fingers for May and it will be great fun in Germany.''Eriksson has admitted that England did not perform well in this season's opening three games against Denmark, Wales and Northern Ireland.

But he believes that Saturday's much-maligned 1-0 win over Austria was a step in the right direction.

"It's important in that the first three games we didn't play good football,'' he said. "I think Saturday was a big step forward and we'll try to go on with that tomorrow."

"I know we now have five games before the World Cup starts so we have to get on with it.''

FIFA are yet to announce how the seedings for the finals in Germany will be worked out but Eriksson claimed it was just important to try to win every competitive match.

"How important FIFA rankings will be I don't know. We asked FIFA yesterday and they don't know."

"But it's better to try to win two games, I agree."

"The first three games of season we didn't play well as we should. It was a big step forward on Saturday, we played as a team again. We missed that a bit in Denmark and Northern Ireland."I am quite sure they will play their best next summer, I am quite sure about that."