Best yet to come from England, promises Eriksson

Jun 28, 2006, 17:53 GMT

Baden-Baden, Germany - Sven-Goran Eriksson dismissed criticism of his side's World Cup performances, saying only victory matters and that England would raise their game in Saturday's quarter-final against Portugal.

'We are on the right way. We are in the quarter-final. I think we can play better and we will stay in Germany for a long time still,' the England coach said.

'You haven't seen the best of us yet and hopefully it will come on Saturday.'

Eriksson added that playing good football didn't help the likes of Spain, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands or Ghana, who have all been eliminated from the World Cup.

'You like to play good football but the most important thing is to win or you are on the plane home,' said the Swede.

With Portugal missing the suspended Deco and Costinha for the match in Gelsenkirchen, Eriksson said he thought Luis Figo would most likely play behind Pauleta.

'I guess he might play behind Pauleta. He did it in the first game against Angola,' he said. 'Of course he is dangerous, he set up the first goal in that game.'

Eriksson listed Brazil and Argentina as the tournament favourites while he described hosts Germany as 'getting stronger and stronger'.

'But I hope people will be saying England are the favourites on Sunday morning,' he said.