Istanbul, Oct 12: England coach Sven Goran Eriksson says draw 0-0 with Turkey is marvellous result. Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson paid tribute to England for putting a domestic crisis behind them to earn a 0-0 draw in Turkey and qualify for Euro 2004 on Saturday. The stalemate kept England top of Group Seven days after players had threatened a historic boycott of the game in protest at the dropping of defender Rio Ferdinand for a missed drugs test. "Once again we showed we have a very good football team, full of character," Eriksson told a news conference. "Today's performance was extremely professional if you think of what happened during the week. They put all that aside and played good football. "It's not easy to get a positive result in Turkey. They did it and they did it in a very convinced way. A 0-0 is normally not a good football result but today it's a marvellous result. I'm very proud."


England got the draw after skipper David Beckham spectacularly missed a penalty, blasting the ball towards the rafters after losing his footing.

Defending his skipper, Eriksson said: "His left foot slipped otherwise David Beckham would never put a penalty up there.

"It was a good rugby goal maybe."


Though he saw nothing of an incident in the tunnel as the players left at halftime, Eriksson said referee Pierluigi Collina had made his presence felt.


"Collina - very good as usual. He took Beckham and Alpay, I think Alpay as well, into the dressing room - his dressing room - and talked to them and in those circumstances he is very good," Eriksson said.


Turkey manager Senol Gunes said that his side didn't play their best on the night. "No matter how much we have a desire to win, the football we played was below our normal level of playing football," Gunes said.


Bureau Report