England keep eye on Italy

Reed is warning the team not to take Romania lightly

BBC Sport Online's Pete Lansley hears from Kevin Keegan's right-hand men who are keeping an eye on England's potential quarter-final opponents.

Kevin Keegan's right-hand men, bolstered by the tactical triumph over the Germans, are warning England's players that they must not treat Tuesday's fixture with Romania lightly.

But Les Reed, one of Keegan's coaches, is already casting a tactical eye towards Italy.

The Azzurri are set to be England's quarter-final opponents should results go to form over the next 48 hours.

Italy await if England can get past Romania

A point will see England into the last eight as, even if Germany beat Portugal on Tuesday to pull level on four points, Keegan's team would go through by dint of having won the showdown between the two sides.

Italy have already sewn up Group B so if England avoid defeat on Tuesday to finish second in Group A, they will meet the team who they beat to qualification for France 98.

But if England have one eye on Italy, the other is firmly on Romania.

Derek Fazackerley, Keegan's coach at Newcastle and now with the national team, said: "You can't look at the Romania game and say, 'We only need a point from that'.

"You go in looking for the win and, if we win, great; if we get a draw and that's enough for us, then smashing."

Thirty-four years of waiting

Reed looked back at the victory over Germany and said: "We've had 34 years of waiting for that.

"It was a very tired dressing room afterwards. Heads were buzzing and everyone wanted to get elated. But one or two of the players said, 'Hang on a minute, we've only done half a job'.

"When the gaffer came in from being interviewed, the whole place went up and everyone was absolutely over the moon."

Reed explained the decision to replace Michael Owen in order to stiffen the midfield and play a 'split' strike force of Paul Scholes - then Nick Barmby - just off Alan Shearer.

"It was part of the plan," he said. "What was different tonight was we had a little longer to assess what the Germans were doing.

"We expected what they gave us, with Lothar Matthaus playing slightly in front of the two centre-halves, with lots of crosses.

Keown: A colossus against Germany

"Martin Keown and Sol Campbell were magnificent: they won't have a bigger aerial onslaught than that again.

"We stood up and were counted, especially on set-plays and towards the end when they were bringing on bigger and bigger men.

"We must not lose sight of the fact that Romania is the big game now. Obviously a draw will see us through but we've got to play to win with a bit of caution.

"If we win we'll reassess, but it looks like Italy [in the quarter-finals].

"They've had a great start to the competition, they're very strong and awesomely fit, with more technique than the Germans.

"Our confidence will grow massively now after this result and as long as we put in a decent performance against Romania and get a result there, we'll be going into the Italy game with spirits and confidence high."