Life without Beckham upsets England

Cameroon outplayed England for long spells but then threw away a win in the last seconds as Robbie Fowler produced the second equaliser of the game.

Coach Sven Goran Eriksson was not pleased after the game and his side should have lost.

"We did some good things but there are many things we must do better if we are to beat Sweden next Sunday," Eriksson complained.

"We have a week to work on some details in our play, defending and attacking there are things we have to make better. But there were many good things today."

The entire focus now shifts to the fitness of captain David Beckham but he is clearly losing his battle to be fit after a broken bone in his foot and is unlikely to face the Swedes.

But Eriksson rubbished claims that Beckham was due to return to England for further treatment.

"Everything is as we planned so far," Eriksson said. "We think, we hope he will be fit for Sunday.

"He has started running more and more and hopefully in the middle of the week he will start practicing with the team, with the ball. The plans are like that and they've not been changed.

"After the session he had today he felt very well, no complaints, no pain at all so that is very positive."

Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer has far fewer problems despite money rows over bonuses and a tangled and farcial three day journey to the Far East last week.

The African champions put that behind them to dominate England and the German coach hailed his players after the draw.

"I'm really happy with the performance because we lost three days travelling," Schafer said.

"I was scared some of the players might have a reaction and get injured but they really played like lions today."

Michael Owen was replaced at half-time as the game saw substitutions by both sides and England had struggled back into the game after Cameroon had gone ahead in the 5th minute following an expansive move which culminated in their best player Pierre Wome hitting a shot off the cross bar from wide on the wing and it fell for Samuel Eto'o to score.

Darius Vassell hit a neat shot on the run from a pass by Paul Scholes to equalise with Geremi sweeping in a free kick from distance past a poorly placed David James to give Cameroon a lead on the hour mark which Fowler overcame with a looping header as the game wound down.