Sven Praises Blues Duo

Last updated : 17 November 2003 By Rich Godden

Johnson made his debut for England, coming on for the injured Gary Neville after just 15 minutes. And, despite a shaky display, Sven still had words of comfort for Jonno: "He is a great talent but has to learn a lot of things yet, you can't expect him to be ready.

"In 23 [Premiership] games you don't learn everything about this profession but he is one of those great, great talents that we have."

And Cole scored England's second goal, also his second goal for his country, leading Sven to say, "Joe Cole is also becoming better and better and his quality is incredible. It was nice to see them both, who knows in Portugal if they are ready or not?"

But he also had some worries over Cole, after his mistake led to Denmark's first equaliser (sort of!): Joe is a great talent, he is becoming better and better and his quality is incredible. But he has still to learn things about the game, the same as Glen Johnson.

"You learn that if you make a mistake in international football against a team like Denmark, then you pay for it and that's what we did."