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By Trevor Huggins COLOGNE, June 19 - England coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson warned fans not to expect too much from striker Wayne
Rooney when he starts Tuesday's World Cup game with Sweden. Rooney came on for the last half-hour of Thursday's 2-0 win
over against Trinidad & Tobago in Group B, nearly seven weeks
after breaking his foot. "I think he did very well when he came on and seeing him in
training, he's fit and he can do more than 45 minutes," Eriksson
told a news conference on Monday. "That's the reason we're starting with him tomorrow...he's
important, very important." But asked if people might be expecting too much of the
gifted 20-year-old, Eriksson said: "We shouldn't do that. "You know that he's been out for a long time. But he played
well in the 30 minutes he got at the last match and he will play
better tomorrow, I'm quite sure about it. "He looks sharper and sharper in training...and he will very
soon be ready 100 percent." Eriksson believes Rooney's return to the starting line-up
will help Michael Owen, who has struggled with a lack of
sharpness and a lack of service. Asked about Owen, Eriksson said: "I hope he plays better and
better, of course, and I suppose it's easier for him tomorrow. "His partner is Wayne Rooney and that means he can stay up
front even more and Rooney will be the linking player, as in the
past." At least one among midfielders Steven Gerrard and Frank
Lampard, plus striker Peter Crouch, will be rested as all are a
yellow card away from a suspension and England have already
qualified for the second round. CLEAN SLATE FIFA will wipe the slate clean for one yellow card picked up
in the group phase. "I will not play all three of them that's for sure," he
said. "We want to win the group. But on the other hand, we want
to have all players clean after the Sweden game." Crouch is expected to be on the bench, with Owen Hargreaves
replacing Gerrard as a holding midfielder. Eriksson said he wanted to stay top of the group to have the
extra rest day -- and play on Sunday instead of Saturday -- even
if it meant facing host nation Germany. "To win the group is always the best whatever happens in the
other game," he said of the hosts' decisive Group A match
earlier on Tuesday against Ecuador. "We didn't do it two years ago in Portugal or four years ago
in Japan. Let's hope we can do it tomorrow." England, who need only a draw to finish top, have not tasted
victory over Eriksson's native country since 1968. "Sooner or later we have to beat them and hopefully it will
be sooner," he said.
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