Sven-Goran Eriksson praised man-of-the-match Alan Smith after England's 1-1 friendly draw with Portugal at Villa Park.

"Alan Smith showed that he is really ready for the senior team and that is very good for us. You now know that when there are qualification games he is ready.

"He had a really good game today. He can play in several different positions and he scored a beautiful goal."

"I think Bowyer and Woodgate played well," said Eriksson. "Woodgate got a knock early on in the second half and suffered with it a bit but it's not serious."

"In the second half we marked very badly. They had two corner kicks and could have scored each time before the one they did score from," moaned Eriksson.

Smith said: "I enjoyed it out there. It was nice to get a start, nice to play. The lads helped me out. Full credit to the lads, Michael Owen helped me out. It was good for me to get involved."

Lee Bowyer said: "I came in from the warm-up and the staff settled me down. I got an early touch and that helped. I loved every minute of it - and I hope there is more to come. Smithy helped me out by scoring. It was the biggest game of my life, the first time representing my country at the highest level. It has been a long time waiting for it. I've had a lot of backing. I tried my hardest and I'll keep trying hard for Leeds."

Gareth Southgate, who won his 50th cap, said: "I think we played very well in the first half but were a bit distracted in the second half. We might have won the game and on the whole it was fairly positive.

"But when you make a lot of changes, as we did in the second half, it's very hard to just go and pick up the pace of the first half."