England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson addmitted that he was pleased to avoid Senegal in the last 16 after seeing his side secure the point that brings them face-to-face with Denmark in the next round.
“African teams keep the ball and make us run, run, run,” he said.
“Our first target was to qualify for the next phase and we have done that. It was very hot and difficult today and we did OK. We knew that Nigeria did not want to lose and wanted to win, and I think they played well.
“We had more chances and didn’t socre but let’s hope we save that for Saturday. It doesn’t matter who we play, the fact is we have to play Denmark.”
England’s outstanding player against Nigeria, defender Rio Ferdinand added: “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and we knew they would be tough. We came here wanting to get out of the group and now we want to go as far as possible.
“We’ve watched (next opponents) Denmark and they’ve done well to beat France. It will be a tough game and we’re looking forward to it.”
“It wasn’t comfortable because of the heat. We had a couple of chances but we’re happy. It didn’t matter what happened in the other game, we just had to do our job,” added skipper David Beckham:.
