“I’ve enjoyed the three days and, as long as it doesn’t affect Leicester City, I’m happy to help out where I can,” Taylor said.The Leicester manager felt England had deserved at least a draw but said: “The result is not important because it’s a friendly. The performance is the most important thing and that’s what we’ve got out of the game.”The players worked very hard. They were very solid at the back and they passed it alright at times. I couldn’t ask for any more from them.”Taylor felt England might have had a penalty when Gattuso barged over David Beckham in the area but had no complaints that the Italian escaped punishment when he slapped the England captain seconds later.”I think perhaps it was a penalty near the end but I haven’t seen the replay,” said Taylor. “Because it was a friendly the ref decided not to take any action [against Gattuso].”Taylor believed Beckham had relished being captain for the first time, saying: “I think he’s enjoyed the responsibility that we’ve given him.”He did not expect to have a chance to talk to Eriksson about the game until the squad was back in England. “I think he’s got lots of people from Lazio with him so I’m going to get on the coach back to the airport,” he said.. Something utterly remarkable happened here in the Stadio delle Alpi in the emotional heartland of Italian football.

Of course it was not that an England team lost, we are conditioned to that. What was so arresting was that an England team played football that had a soul and, perhaps, a future. Something utterly remarkable happened here in the Stadio delle Alpi in the emotional heartland of Italian football. Of course it was not that an England team lost, we are conditioned to that.

What was so arresting was that an England team played football that had a soul and, perhaps, a future.
How sturdy is that soul we will find out soon enough when the watching coach-elect Sven Goran Eriksson picks up the small but hopeful legacy left to him by England’s leader for a night, Peter Taylor.But, if it is a fragile inheritance filled by much still unformed talent, it offered something undreamed of just a month or so ago in Helsinki, when England played football against Finland so gnarled it might have come from the stone age.It showed a degree of wit and imagination. It had players whose instincts went beyond the merely functional. There was a touch of vision, a belief in skill.Of course Eriksson cannot be so fanciful as Taylor. He cannot go with youth as a reflex action to all the waste and the frustration that currently leaves England floundering in their World Cup qualifying group.He has to fashion results, he has to weigh the nous of veterans such as Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Teddy Sheringham in that fine balance that sometimes produces a winning effort in unpromising circumstances.But Eriksson could return to his duties with Lazio warmed by the knowledge that there is indeed something waiting in the wings of English football — something which indeed might just bring vital life to a cause that seemed beyond hope of rescue during Euro 2000 and the dismal return to competitive action with Germany at Wembley.Eriksson is canny enough to know that what happened here was not much more than a fleeting guide to future prospects. The Italians, who have been responding impressively to the promptings of their new coach, the deeply experienced Giovanni Trapattoni, were no doubt less than fully extended. But that is not to dismiss the value of the meaning of young England here. There were some performances of both accomplishment and character.

Most striking of all was the assurance of Rio Ferdinand, a 22-year-old whose international career appeared to have died on the vine in the brief, calamitous reign of Kevin Keegan.Ferdinand, playing in the novelty English position of sweeper, could scarcely have started less promisingly when he hoofed the ball into touch under minimum pressure. But from that false note his performance grew in a series of beguiling crescendos. At one point he sent the experienced Filippo Inzaghi the wrong way so deftly that he brought to mind the composure of Lennox Lewis in his weekend defence of the world heavyweight title. Inzaghi flew in one direction, Ferdinand in another, with Ferdinand accompanying the ball.For a young player labelled with the charge that he is arguably the most accident-prone of front-line Premiership defenders, Ferdinand was a revelation His touch was often superb. Once he split the entire Italian defence — which is a phrase that does not trip easily onto the lips — with a beautifully flighted through ball.