Defoe inspires England to a 1-0 win over slovenia and a place in the next round

England beats Slovenia to reach next round

Defoe inspires England to a 1-0 win over slovenia and a place in the next round

Jermain Defoe scored the first-half goal which gave England a 1-0 victory which took them through to the last 16. They will now play the winners of Group D in Bloemfontein on Sunday after the USA topped Group C with a last-ditch win against Algeria.

England boss Capello was delighted by the manner in which his team rediscovered the spirit which had been missing in draws against the USA and Algeria.

Capello, whose iron discipline had been questioned in the last two weeks, said: "Yesterday evening they drank beer before the game.

"And I saw the team play with the spirit that we lost in the games we played before this game. The performance was really good and we created a lot of chances to score a second goal.

"This is the spirit that I remember when we played in the qualification games. I am really happy with the performance of the team. "We played hard, we attacked the ball and this is important if we want to win."
Capello substituted Wayne Rooney, who was struggling with an ankle injury after suffering a kick in the second half, bringing on Joe Cole after 71 minutes.

But he is confident Rooney will recover to take his place on Sunday.

Capello said: "I substituted Wayne because his ankle was not so good, he has some problems."
Pressed on how serious the injury was, Capello added: "I don't know. I have to wait for the doctor but I think it will be okay for the next game on Sunday."

Capello strode onto the pitch at the final whistle and made a point of embracing John Terry, the former England captain who had questioned the manager's methods at the training camp in Rustenburg and made a thinly-veiled appeal for Joe Cole to be selected.

Capello said of Terry: "He is a leader. I have no problem with the players.

"I respect the players and they respect me. It was a very important performance from Terry. But all the players played well."

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