08.05.2010
Capello wary over England's World Cup group
England manager Fabio Cappello sits in the stands during a Premier League football match. Capello has warned his England stars not to expect an easy path to the knockout stages of the World Cup.
Capello's side will face the United States, Algeria and Slovenia in their first phase group and many pundits claim England have been handed a relatively straight-forward route to the last 16.
But Capello, who names his provisional 30-man squad for the finals on Tuesday, has no intention of underestimating any of England's opponents in South Africa.
The Italian is adamant they are all strong sides capable of troubling his team if they let their guard down.
Speaking to Eurosport's Eurogoals One-to-One show, Capello said: "After the draw everyone said it was going to be easy.
"But our biggest mistake would be to think, just because we are England, that we have an easy draw."
Capello went through each opponent in turn to emphasise his point, starting with the United States, who have improved so much over the past two decades and now provide many quality players to the Premier League.
"The United States have always done well in World Cups," Capello said.
"I was in South Africa last summer and saw them in the Confederations Cup when they beat Spain, who are not exactly a small team. They deserve the maximum respect.
"Slovenia eliminated Russia, who are a top team. We also played against them in a friendly at Wembley, which we only won 2-1 and they made it quite hard for us at times.
"Algeria eliminated Egypt, who are the African champions. When you look at that people need to calm down because these three matches won't be easy at all.
"All of these teams are well organised and have good players."
Source: © 2010 AFP - Geoff Caddick
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