Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has hit back at Manchester United great Gary Neville, after the former right-back claimed that none of the Three Lions teams that he played in put in a performance on the same level as Gareth Southgate's side did during their quarter-final defeat by France.
England bowed out of the World Cup with a 2-1 loss to France on Saturday night. After scoring from the spot early in the second-half, Harry Kane's missed penalty in the 84th minute will ultimately go down as the defining moment that saw their tournament draw to close.
The heartbreak is not new to England, yet the frustration now being felt is undoubtedly linked with the fact that there is a genuine belief that the team was capable of emulating the success of 1966.
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Neville has been very vocal with his praise for the current group of players, with the former United captain even admitting that despite the defeat by France, none of the England teams he played in had managed to put in a performance of that level in any major tournament.
Eriksson has now dismissed this notion, though, telling OLBG : "If you look at some of the games in my time at England many years ago, I don't think Gary Neville was a part of the team that beat Germany 5-1 [in 2001], I think he was injured. Of course, we had performances as good as England's against France, but the England squad now is very very strong, not just starting 11, the whole 26-man squad.
"You can make a lot of changes now and you won't notice a massive difference. I don't remember when England had such a strong squad, I'd agree with Neville about that."
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