Cole: 'We can't afford same mistakes against Ecuador'

England proved there is more to their attacking play than long balls and set pieces last night, but it was the failure to defend against them that Sven Goran Eriksson identified as the only reason their 38-year wait to defeat Sweden did not end in Cologne.

Eriksson's side were only three minutes of stoppage time away from recording their first victory over his compatriots since 1968 when Henrik Larsson took advantage of poor defending from John Terry, Sol Campbell and Paul Robinson to poke Erik Edman's long throw beyond the Tottenham goalkeeper. Larsson's leveller, after the outstanding Joe Cole and substitute Steven Gerrard had twice given England the lead, followed similar hesitancy from David Beckham who allowed Marcus Allback to glance home a Tobias Linderoth corner six minutes into the second half.

With Premiership residents Freddie Ljungberg and Olof Mellberg also striking the crossbar from two of Sweden's 12 corners England's proud clean sheet in the tournament and an encouraging 45-minute display in Cologne were unravelled as Lars Lagerback's side dominated the second half. Regardless, it was mission accomplished for England, who acquired the point they needed to finish top of Group B and will now meet Ecuador, runners-up in Group A behind Germany, in the last 16 in Stuttgart on Sunday.

"We are top and I'm very happy about that. I am happy with how we played apart from at set pieces. Take them two away and it would have been perfect," Eriksson said. "We played very well in the first half but many times we start the second half badly and we let Sweden play a lot of long balls close to our box and we suffered. They had a lot of long balls and set pieces and scored from a corner and a throw-in. We don't usually concede goals like that and we should not concede goals like that because we are a strong team.

"We have to continue playing like we did in the first half but we will also have to defend better from set pieces. We scored two fantastic goals and it is annoying that we didn't defend better. The most important thing is that we won the group. That is what we have talked about doing since we arrived in Germany."

Eriksson's view was echoed by Joe Cole, who produced an exquisite volley to put England ahead, tormented the Swedish right flank and created Gerrard's 83rd-minute header in a man-of-the -match performance from the Chelsea midfielder.

"We can't make the same mistakes against Ecuador," Cole said. "It's going to be a tough game. They were third in South American qualifying and they've put in two terrific performances so far. Whether we'd got Germany or them, it would have been difficult, but we're in the knock-out stages now. We can't afford to make any more mistakes from set pieces. I'm confident in our defenders. The likes of JT [John Terry], Rio [Ferdinand], Jamie [Carragher] and Ashley [Cole] are brilliant in those situations and I'm sure that'll be the last time we concede from a set piece."

Wayne Rooney made his first start since 29 April and lasted an impressive 69 minutes before tiring and being replaced by Gerrard, much to his obvious disgust as he punched the dug-out and kicked off his boots following his substitution. "My fitness has never been a problem. I feel good and I felt I could have played longer out there," he said.

Eriksson, however, played down Rooney's reaction to being withdrawn during an understandably less effective second half. The England manager said: "I asked him about it after the game and he said he was disappointed because he should have played better. He was more upset with himself. It is not a problem. He thought that he didn't play as well as he did in the first half in the second half but he is getting better and better. I took him off because I couldn't risk him getting injured and playing too much too early."

The Manchester United striker added: "It was nice to get back out there playing again. I thought we played well in the first half but the tempo dropped a bit in the second. We are just happy that we came out of it as group winners."