Fabio Capello made it five England wins on the bounce with a famous victory in Berlin over rivals Germany, and are now BP 10/1 for World Cup glory in 2010.

England manager Fabio Capello has admitted he could not have imagined a better year following Wednesday’s 2-1 friendly victory over Germany.

The result means England have won seven and drawn one of his nine matches in charge, with the only blip being the 1-0 defeat by France in March.

This was Germany’s first defeat in Berin since Brazil prevailed 35 years ago. More importantly, England have made a wonderful start to their World Cup qualifying campaign having won all four of their matches to date.

“I cannot have imagined a better year in charge. I think it would have been impossible to be better than this,” he admitted.

“We’ve played 10 games and, after every game, I’ve seen the players taking another step forward.

“Against Germany, I saw another step forward because a lot of players played very, very well.

“Like a team. This is very important for me, very important. It’s perfect.

“When I started my job, I had to recover the confidence. I think all the players in this team understand and have experienced this. You can see that the confidence is coming back, during training and during games. This is very important.”

Both England and Germany used Wednesday’s friendly to give younger players a chance to stake their claim for a regular place and Capello felt it was an interesting encounter.

“I think it was an interesting game for Germany because they played new players from their squad,” he continued.

“The same for us. I saw some players who have not played a lot of games under me. Agbonlahor played well but the team’s movement with the ball into space and as a defensive unit was very impressive. There was good balance for the team when we went forward and when we had to defend. The performance was very, very important for us.

“We played well, with confidence, and with good technique. I’m happy to have selection problems after these players did so well. I needed to know these players better, and now I do.”

Fabio Capello made it five England wins on the bounce with a famous victory in Berlin over rivals Germany, and are now BP 10/1 for World Cup glory in 2010.

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