Sven-Goran Eriksson declared that England have won the respect of the rest of the world with their progress to the World Cup quarter-finals.

Eriksson was at pains to deflect all the praise for their achievements so far, insisting he is not a "hero" and paying tribute to his players instead.

"I've always been very proud to have this job," he declared.

"If we can go further on, it will be very good for English football. But I don't feel like a hero. I just have a very good football team."

It was nevertheless just under two years ago that England reached the low ebb of being knocked out of the Euro 2000 finals in the group stage and then promptly losing at home to Germany.

Eriksson has since reversed their fortunes and the team have now raised World Cup expectations to fever pitch at home with their comfortable 3-0 second-round win against Denmark. While France and Argentina are out, Brazil could still await in the quarter-finals if they can beat Belgium later today, while Senegal, Japan or Turkey would be possible semi-final opponents.

Eriksson believes that his team are, crucially, developing the sort of winning mentality which underpins club sides as they are benefiting from spending so long together.

"They are showing that they don't want to lose and it's very good to see," he added.

Eriksson played down England's injury concerns from their win in Niigata, with only Owen Hargreaves still likely to miss their quarter-final in Shizuoka.

Emile Heskey, Paul Scholes, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler should all be fit for Friday.