England dominated possession in the first half but lacked any creativity to break down a well prepared Liechtenstein defence. David Beckham and James Beattie saw efforts thwarted by the woodwork and Michael Owen missed an open goal but the score remained goal less at the break.

The Old Trafford crowd did not have to wait long for a goal though, Michael Owen stooping to head home on 46 minutes. The lead was doubled soon after with Wayne Rooney getting his second England goal finishing after being setup by Steven Gerrard. England then stopped playing for about fifteen minutes allowing Liechtenstein to pass the ball around at will. They did up the pace again in the last twenty minutes but overall another win with an unconvincing performance. Wayne Rooney easily the best player on show.

"In that role he's doing very well,' said Eriksson. "He's clever, he plays people in, he scores goals. For a 17-year-old boy he has started international football in an excellent way. We'll see him score for England in the future and it would be very difficult to leave him out if he plays like that."

Eriksson admitted the performance was not as good as the result and insisted his side had to learn to become more ruthless.

"We were professional,' said Eriksson. 'We could have scored more goals but we could also have conceded one near the end. When you are 2-0 up you should be looking to keep the ball. We are not good at that because we want to attack. Today it wasn't important and the job has been done.

"I'm happy to be top of the group. Now it's fingers crossed for fit players for next month.

"At half-time I told them to play with a better tempo, to have fewer touches on the ball, to pressure Liechtenstein more to make them make mistakes. Liechtenstein are very good when they lose the ball. They get 10 men behind the ball very quickly. People talk about Turkey, Turkey but we had to beat Liechtenstein.'

Meanwhile Liechtenstein manager Walter Hormann warned England they would struggle in Istanbul.

"It's going to be really difficult for England against Turkey,' he said. 'The Turkish players are very creative. It will be difficult for England to get one point. The performance of England was not great tonight."