Capello's England take first steps on road to recovery

New coach Fabio Capello was left with no illusions about the task he faces after seeing England beat Switzerland 2-1 in his first match in charge on Wednesday.

"I always knew it was going to be a hard job," Capello told reporters at Wembley, adding he thought the players were still suffering from the hangover of failing to qualify for the European Championship being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria in June.

Although most of the first half bore a distinct resemblance to England's uninspired display when they lost 3-2 to Croatia in November to exit Euro 2008, the home team improved a great deal as the game went on.

The players largely kept their shape in Capello's 4-1-4-1 formation with Gareth Barry and Jermaine Jenas unlikely starters in midfield along with stand-in captain Steven Gerrard and the outstanding David Bentley.

Barry, preferred to Owen Hargreaves as the midfield anchorman, had a decent game while Jenas scored the opening goal and could have added a second after half-time. Joe Cole, who created the goal for Jenas, the hard-working Wayne Rooney and Bentley were England's best players.

The exclusion of Michael Owen from the team, combined with the omission of David Beckham from the squad last week, proved Capello will not pick his teams on reputation alone.

Owen, fourth in England's all-time scoring list with 40 goals from 88 internationals, remained on the substitutes' bench throughout as Capello brought on Peter Crouch and Shaun Wright-Phillips to pep up the attack early in the second half.

Crouch combined well with Rooney and was involved in the move that led to Wright-Phillips's winning goal in the 62nd minute.

While the performance was far from a classic, England largely controlled the midfield against a Swiss side whose sporadic attacks petered out against a home defence in which only Rio Ferdinand looked at ease, even if he was caught out by the run and shot from Eren Derdiyok for the equaliser.

"We probably still had in the back of our minds the failure to qualify for the European Championship," said Italian Capello.

"Wembley always creates pressure on the players and they couldn't play as they hoped to at first. But then we created a lot of chances and that's one aspect I was pleased about."

He also said Beckham and Owen were still part of his plans. But whether Beckham, on 99 caps, and Owen, on 88, will reach the magical 100 is something that probably not even Capello knows.