THE World Cup starts here for England now that we are through to the knockout stages.

But I cannot be the only person in the country that feels we must play much, much better if we are to reach the latter stages.

It would have been devastating to crash out at the group stage.

We are usually slow starters, so I can only hope England beat Ecuador in the last 16 and keep improving. It would be a major shock if we lost to them.

It was a much better performance against Sweden last night, but we should have beaten them 2-1. When Steven Gerrard scored late on, we should have shut up shop.

Sweden's last minute equaliser was a comedy of errors on our part.

I bet every pub in England went flat when that went in.

To be honest, we did not look our best in defence.

It's a real shame for Michael Owen. I've backed him to be England's first scorer in the last three matches.

Against Paraguay he was 2/1, then 4/1 against Trindad.

His odds went to 13/2 against Sweden, which looked great value, because Owen is a great goalscorer with a tremendous record for England.

I don't know the full extent of Owen's knee injury, but it looks really bad.

I would have thought he is definitely out of the tournament now.

It's just one of those things. But I'm gutted for him and England are a poorer team without Owen.

From now on, playing 4-5-1 looks the way forward, with Wayne Rooney on his own up front.

Before the World Cup started, I would have settled for Ecuador in the second round.

We've got a heck of a lot more chance beating them than we have Germany.

On current form and them being the host nation, Germany would have been really tough opponents.

I know we beat them 5-1 on their home patch five years ago - a magnificent result - but we are unlikely to repeat that.

I can see Germany getting to the final. Miroslav Klose has four goals and he will take some stopping for the Golden Boot.

Ecuador have been the tournament's surprise package and it won't be a pushover, but we should not be losing to them.

Agree? Disagree?
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