England earn reward as favourites falter

Eriksson's pragmatic approach pays dividends in heat of tough battle while Argentina join early exodus of more fancied rivals

Sometimes, we are told, it is better to live on your knees than die on your feet, and though it may not be the most glorious of battle cries it has an unrepentant champion here in Sven Goran Eriksson.

The Iceman has again come through with his folksy mix of gentle talk and hard ambition, and if his England have lifted few neutral hearts so far, their own ones are beating with something that is the envy of the teams who were supposed to dominate this 17th World Cup. It is a vital something called life.

England, disjointed and languid in the sapping heat, survived the Group of Death with a 0-0 draw against the broken-winged Eagles of Nigeria, who were so passive a doctor might have struggled to find a pulse.

But Argentina, a team of coruscating individual talent, did not, and with champions France deposed and Italy, who were expected to march serenely through the killing fields which had claimed the two clear favourites, fighting for their lives against Mexico today, Eriksson has an unanswerable point when he says: "We got what we wanted, so everything is OK."

It was emblazoned on the Japanese sky as the day ordained for the Group of Death to separate dreams from reality. It left Argentina in the abyss which will always await failure for the heirs of Mario Kempes and Diego Maradona. England play Denmark in Niigata on Saturday. There it was, as stark as a death sentence, the difference between a bold performance and a good result, and Eriksson had reason enough to celebrate his dodging of the firing squad.

Certainly in a perfect world it would have been better to have attacked the fragile psyche of a Nigerian team haunted by failure to make any impact on a tournament which has seen the dramatic emergence of their junior neighbours, Senegal, but in the end Eriksson judged the risks attached to going for first place in Group F, and an extra day of rest before meeting the Senegalese, were too great.

The man who won the scudetto for Lazio made survival the prize as his Argentinian counterpart Marcelo Bielsa juggled desperately with superstars like Batistuta of Roma, Crespo of Lazio, Veron of Manchester United and Aimar of Valencia but could do no better than the 1-1 draw with Sweden which brought elimination – and a blaze of anger and disbelief on the inflation-ravaged streets of Buenos Aires and Cordoba.

Argentina, like France 24 hours before them, died while playing the sweeping, but anxiety-riddled, football which was supposed to adorn and shape this remarkable World Cup.

England lived with infinitely more pragmatism than inspiration but Eriksson, who inherited a team on the qualifying rocks just 18 months ago, was happy enough to wipe the sweat from his brow and declare: "Surviving this difficult group was our first target, and we achieved it, so we have to be happy for that. It was very hot today [nearly 90F] and with high humidity at pitch level. We knew that Nigeria didn't want to lose today and we couldn't afford to lose.

"I think in these circumstances the players did well. We had more chances than them, but we didn't score today. Let's hope that we save that for future matches. When you are in a group like this it doesn't really matter who you play next, Denmark or Senegal, because the important thing is to get through and fight another day. These African teams can keep the ball and make you run, run, run... but now we are through and we have to beat Denmark – or try to beat Denmark."

Pure Eriksson, this. We must try to beat Denmark, the conquerors of France, but then who would have sneered at such circumspection on a cold night in Helsinki two winters ago when England laboured to a point against Finland, having dropped three to Germany the day the old doors of Wembley clanked shut, and the Football Association, privately resigned itself to another jarring halt in the course of the nation's international football? And what would Argentina's drowning Bielsa have given to be able to slip such a bromide into his country's cup of football expectation yesterday?

Eriksson simply backed his way out of the Group of Death as Argentina ransacked their brilliant playing resources in pursuit of a life-giving win.

When the news came in that Hernan Crespo had swooped on the loose ball after Sweden's Magnus Hedman had parried Ariel Ortega's penalty in the 88th minute and raced to return the ball to the centre circle, as Eusebio did all those years ago for Portugal when he brought his team back from the edge against North Korea, Eriksson knew a winning goal for England that would bring first place in Group F was suddenly an ambition too filled with risk.

Defeat by the Nigerians, randomly created by a flash of force from the impressively powerful Julius Aghahowa, who pines for a warmer and more lucrative workplace than Ukraine, or crafted by their skilled and imaginative Paris-based captain Jay-Jay Okocha, would have made the difference between Niigata and the Danes and Oita and the Senegalese a matter of forlorn irrelevance.

Eriksson had to choose between Heathrow and World Cup life, and naturally he went for the latter. It took an anaemic form for most of the 90 minutes but if the progress of England has been marked by an almost weird mixture of strength and weakness, two players again set the only standard by which the team can expect to make a serious challenge for a place in the final in Yokohama on the last day of this month.

Paul Scholes, with a thunderous drive which brought a spectacular save from the Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and a sustained effort to inject a little genuine force into the English effort, confirmed his status as England's man of the World Cup. On his shoulder is Rio Ferdinand, the superbly gifted central defender who carries a reputation for making two mistakes a game. Ferdinand made a lie of the accusation yesterday. He made only one, and it was forced by the powerful Aghahowa. For the rest of the time Ferdinand was no less than masterful.

Whatever happens to England, it seems that Ferdinand is making this World Cup his rite of passage to the highest level of the game. His touch and Scholes' drive carried England out of the Group of Death. Hopefully, Eriksson and his men will have better moments in the days ahead, but what they had in the drenching heat yesterday was the precious gift of World Cup life. Now they simply have to get up off their knees.