LONDON, May 21 (DS) - David Beckham said England's World Cup opener against Sweden will be decisive in assessing their chances for the World Cup trophy, reported The Mirror.
The England skipper commented on the upcoming Sweden match:
"The Sweden game is the most important one for us.
"People are already focusing on the Argentina game, but our performance against Sweden will set the tone for our World Cup. If we can get off to the perfect start by getting a result against Sweden, that will give us a lot of confidence for the next two group games and a great chance of qualifying for the next round.
"The most important thing is making sure we get through the group stage. That's the hardest thing. After that, anything is possible when you get to the knockout stage.
"You have to go into a World Cup believing you can win it, otherwise there's no point in going. We've got some quality players, so we have to be confident."
Meanwhile, Eriksson has another view on the continuing talks over the Sweden clash:
He said: "When we got to Dubai last week I told the players that we cannot afford to be talking about Sweden for three weeks.
"It has to be serious work now but we must not spend all our time thinking about that game in Saitama.
"We all know it's an important game, more important than many others but we have to do our normal football work and do all the other things we have to do.
"If we spend 24 hours a day talking and thinking about Sweden we'll arrive at the game exhausted, especially mentally. What's important is that we have a good laugh and talk about other things. I know it's an extremely important match but it's very dangerous if you go out on to the pitch and are too tense to play football.
"You have to be concentrated on what you're doing. That means that if we have a meeting, we talk about tactics. But it would be wrong for us to be discussing ways of dealing with Freddie Ljungberg and Henrik Larsson every minute for the two or three weeks before the tournament begins."
The England skipper commented on the upcoming Sweden match:
"The Sweden game is the most important one for us.
"People are already focusing on the Argentina game, but our performance against Sweden will set the tone for our World Cup. If we can get off to the perfect start by getting a result against Sweden, that will give us a lot of confidence for the next two group games and a great chance of qualifying for the next round.
"The most important thing is making sure we get through the group stage. That's the hardest thing. After that, anything is possible when you get to the knockout stage.
"You have to go into a World Cup believing you can win it, otherwise there's no point in going. We've got some quality players, so we have to be confident."
Meanwhile, Eriksson has another view on the continuing talks over the Sweden clash:
He said: "When we got to Dubai last week I told the players that we cannot afford to be talking about Sweden for three weeks.
"It has to be serious work now but we must not spend all our time thinking about that game in Saitama.
"We all know it's an important game, more important than many others but we have to do our normal football work and do all the other things we have to do.
"If we spend 24 hours a day talking and thinking about Sweden we'll arrive at the game exhausted, especially mentally. What's important is that we have a good laugh and talk about other things. I know it's an extremely important match but it's very dangerous if you go out on to the pitch and are too tense to play football.
"You have to be concentrated on what you're doing. That means that if we have a meeting, we talk about tactics. But it would be wrong for us to be discussing ways of dealing with Freddie Ljungberg and Henrik Larsson every minute for the two or three weeks before the tournament begins."
