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England's Opponents
England may be a good team, but were they going to win the World Cup? Nah! Not likely.
England had one of the easier groups in the World Cup. They were expected to qualify
to the second stage alongside Sweden without any bother. Then it they would likely face
some serious competition, Brazil, Germany, Argentina and the like, with some penalty shoot-outs no doubt.
Could they make it all the way? Or were they to return home before their postcards?
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| "England will be victorious! Noone can stop them. They are invincible." |
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Paraguay
Date: Saturday 10th June, 1400 BST
Venue: Frankfurt
Result: England 1-0 Paraguay
Paraguay opended the scoring with a goal after only three minutes!! Unfortunatley it was for England.
Carlos Gamarra struck David Beckham's left-wing free-kick past his own keeper to give the English the
only goal of the match.
Reports from a pub in Swindon said that the game was 'lackustre' and 'uninspiring'.
Luckily our contacts kept a low profile while two England fans set upon each other in an unnecessary show of violence.
Trinidad and Tobago
Date: Thursday 15th June, 1700 BST
Venue: Nuremberg
Result: England 2-0 Trinidad and Tobago
They should have been no trouble at all. Ranked 47 in the world, Trinidad and Tobago are first time qualifiers
with no World Cup pedigree to speak of. However, they managed to hold off England for over eighty minutes
through a solid defence and superb goalkeeping.
England may be said to have dominated the match. However this is barely the truth. While having more of the
posession and most of the chances, they failed to capitalise on some of the easiest of opportunities. Meantime
Trinidad and Tobago came close to scoring on more than one occasion. Only the efforts of Crouch and Gerrard
finally saved England's blushes.
Sweden
Date: Tuesday 20th June, 2000 BST
Venue: Cologne
Result: England 2-2 Sweden
Sweden have always been a 'bogey' team for England. Having failed to beat them for 38 years Eriksson's men
hoped to break this run of bad form against the Scandinavians, but it wasn't to be.
Despite twice taking the lead the English sufferd two Swedish equalisers. The second of these goals
was of particular worry to England, as their defence fell apart in a style unworthy of champions.
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