The England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson has urged his players not to use revenge to motivate them for the match against Argentina on Friday 7 June, 2002 at 12.30pm (BST - British Summer Time).

There were complaints about insulting behaviour towards England from the Argentinean team after their World Cup 1998 match (especially when they jeered the England players as they boarded their team coach after losing on penalties). But Eriksson said that this should be treated as a normal football game and that it is not necessary to use what happened in 1998 as motivation.

"It is better to take it as a football game and not something for historical revenge" said Eriksson. Eriksson noted that the game on Friday is a difficult but important one and that if England can win on Friday then there is a good chance of coming top of group F.

Meanwhile, the Argentinean goalkeeper, Pablo Cavallero said that revenge for the Falklands War (which England won back in 1982) is a motivating factor for his side and Juan Sebastian Veron said that he wants to prove to Manchester United fans how good he really is.
 

Since winning the World Cup in 1966 England have always gone out of the finals to either Germany or Argentina:

World Cup 1966: England win final against Germany
World Cup 1970: England go out to Germany
World Cup 1982: England go out to Germany (only Germany went through from this group of 3)
World Cup 1986: England go out to Argentina
World Cup 1990: England go out to Germany
World Cup 1998: England go out to Argentina
(England did not qualify for the finals in 1974, 1978 and 1994)

While England cannot go out of the competition when they face Argentina on Friday, an Argentinean win and a Sweden win against Nigeria on Friday would make it very very difficult for England to qualify for the second round.


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