Ecuador, Jun 25 (EFE).- A perfectly-placed free kick by David Beckham in the 60th minute was all England needed to sidestep Ecuador 1-0 here and move to the World Cup quarterfinals on Sunday.
The English squad now will face off on July 1 against Portugal, who beat The Netherlands 1-0 on Sunday.
The Real Madrid striker had not scored a goal for England in more than three years.
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad played conservatively throughout the match and were startled early on by the Ecuadorians when Carlos Tenorio’s 11th-minute shot went off the crossbar.
The Ecuadorians were adequate – though not formidable or really threatening – opponents. England controlled the ball the majority of the time yet could not set up a worthwhile tally combination during the first half.
After the break, the English came out applying a little more pressure on the South Americans but the latter began to get the ball more as the game opened up to a certain extent.
In the 60th minute, Beckham – the team captain – finally had his chance when a free kick was awarded about 10 yards up from the right-hand edge of the Ecuador penalty area and on a magnificent shot Beckham beat Cristian Mora, although the Ecuadorian goalie did manage to get a fingertip on the ball.
The first half’s dearth of shots on goal was remedied in the second period, particularly as the players began to flag in the heat. Beckham himself became physically sick on the field and was replaced in the 87th minute by Lennon.
The match was played before some 52,000 fans, including a particularly noisy and enthusiastic English contingent, in the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium.
Lineups:
England: Robinson; Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole; Beckham (Lennon, min. 87), Carrick, Lampard, Joe Cole (Carragher, min. 77), Gerrard (Downing, min. 90+2) and Rooney.
Ecuador: Mora; De la Cruz, Hurtado, Espinoza, Reasco; Mendez, Edwin Tenorio (Lara, min. 69), Castillo, Valencia; Delgado and Carlos Tenorio (Kaviedes, min. 73).
The match was refereed by Belgium’s Frank de Bleeckere.
