FIFA WORLD CUP 2006- England 1 Ecuador 0

England marched into the World Cup quarter-final following
a narrow 1-0 victory over Ecuador in Stuttgart, Germany.
Team Captain David Beckham scored the winning goal in
the 60th mins from a beautiful free kick. This type of free
kicks is Beckham's trade mark.




Ecuador playing for the first time in 2nd round of World Cup
history put up a hard fought display. They nearly missed a
golden opportunity to come in front in the 12th mins when
Carlos Tenorio's shot took a deflection of Ashley Cole's leg
and struck the crossbar.




England boss, Sven-Goran Eriksson employed a 4-5-1
system with Wayne Rooney playing up front alone proved
to be a patchy display. He should in my opinion play 4-4-2.
Credit must be given to the Ecuadorian for cutting out
Eriksson's system. However, he realised and made two
changes bringing in Jamie Carragher and Aaron Lennon.




In the 65th mins Ecuador threatened to reply with a goal
by Segundo Castillo shot from the edge of penalty area
forcing England keeper Paul Robinson to dived and well
saved by the right hand post.




Now that England had qualified for the quarter-final, their
next game they will meet another giant killer either Portugal
or Netherlands (Holland) in Gelsenkirchen on 1st of July.

The question is CAN England go beyond that ??


The Statistics : -

England Ecuador

51% Possession 49%

8 Shots at goal 9

5 Corners 7

13 Fouls 24

3 Yellow card 3

0 Red card 0