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Sven: We will win
24/06/2006: The main problem for England in their next game of World Cup 2006 is the fact they have not played a really competitive game of football yet.
The good thing that neither have Ecuador and England have Wayne Rooney.
Sven-Goran Eriksson believes England will win against Ecuador on Sunday and defeat is not an option.
Friday will see the Swede put the finishing touches to the preparations to the afternoon clash with the South Americans in Stuttgart - kick-off 1600.
The national team have yet to play Ecuador at any level and go into the game as hot favourite with the bookmakers and on the exchanges to beat the country ranked 39 in the World by governing body FIFA.
Eriksson said: "I understand that. I think we will win. It's a football match, 90 minutes and you never know. But I think and strongly believe we will go through.
"I don't know if it will be embarrassing if we lose. It's always bad to lose.
"I think we will win but we will respect Ecuador. They have a strong and well-organised team and good football players."
Ecuador qualified for World Cup 2006 having finished third in the South American qualifying campaign behind Brazil and Argentina.
Indeed they beat both Argentina and Brazil in the long qualification process though only at their home stadium in Quito where they had the advantage of playing at nearly 10,000 ft above sea level.
Having upset a disorganised Polish team they skipped past Costa Rica before fielding a weakened side against host Germany losing 3-0.
Eriksson said: "The game against Germany was not the real Ecuador. They left out four or five players, especially the two strikers.
"I've not seen the Costa Rica game yet. I started to watch videos of them on Wednesday.
"They play 4-4-2, they are very organised with two good strikers who hold the ball.
"They are rather quick and physically a strong team. They do the simple things and play the ball.
"Even against Germany I think they had the majority of possession of the ball."
The England coach believes his Three Lions are slowly beginning to find their form.
Eriksson said: "Every game we've played better and better. We can play better. We are not 100 per cent yet. That's very good.
"There are 16 teams left and we are one of them. We are in exactly the position we wanted to be before World Cup 2006 and here we are.
"We are going to play Ecuador on Sunday and hopefully we will play better than we did against Sweden."
The Swede is aware his players must improve on some poor defensive decisions made in the draw against Sweden.
The England coach said: "We didn't mark. We were shouting form the bench all the time to get them to do it better.
"We always prepare set-pieces, attacking and defending. In the dressing room there is a board, set out with the pitch drawn on it. There it is written: 'You mark him, you mark him, you mark him'. It's written all the positions where they should stay.
"I don't know what happened. We did it poorly. That's okay in a game like Sweden but it can't be okay in the future.
"It can't happen again. We need to win every game now."
Gelsenkirchen on Saturday July 1 will the venue for England's quarter final match should they beat Ecuador where they will face either Portugal or Holland.
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