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Soccer · European

Sven shocked after draw

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was shocked after his side's 2-2 Euro 2004 qualifier draw against Macedonia at St Mary's Stadium last night. It was a dismal night for England with another blunder from goalkeeper David Seaman and the dismissal of Alan Smith, who made his first competitive start for England last night.

"We shall not start to cry yet. We were unlucky when they scored a couple of times. Both goals they scored were lucky and we were a bit unlucky. We scored two and had the chance to score many more," Eriksson said. "We didn't play badly. For long periods we played good football."

"Macedonia could go and win the ball with nine or 10 players and they did it well. We should have won this and deserved to but to win it you have to score more," Eriksson continued.

Asked about Seaman's mistake, Eriksson said: "I have not asked David about it. I have just seen it live, not on TV yet, but I will. Bad luck. Eriksson still thought England should have won the match. I don't know how many chances we had - a lot. We should have scored more than twice. It is important to go on working."

"We can do better. There are eight games to play and I think when we went into the qualification for the World Cup it was much worse. We shall not start to cry yet. We have to get back those points in another game."

Filed by Sinéad Kissane

 
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