‘That was it!’ – Sven-Goran Eriksson had hilariously muted reaction to historic night in Munich as ex-England man defends former manager’s stint

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s brilliant two-word reaction to England’s iconic 5-1 victory over Germany has been revealed by former forward Emile Heskey.

Eriksson, who became England’s first foreign boss in 2001, sadly passed away this morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

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Former striker Heskey played under Eriksson almost 30 times during his international career with England.

And one of those games was the famous 5-1 win over Germany in 2001 in the World Cup qualifiers in Munich.

The former striker joined talkSPORT to pay tribute to his ex-England manager and revealed how Eriksson reacted to the victory – and it sums the late Swedish manager’s calm nature up perfectly.

Asked what he was like before and then after the game, Heskey said: “The same! Exactly the same. It’s funny you should say that.

“It was a very important game for us as well because when you’re going into that game, we lost the last game at the old Wembley to Dietmar Hamann’s goal [for Germany].

“Then you go into their backyard, they hadn’t lost in 50-something games at home, and then you’re 1-0 down after seven minutes.

“So it was going to be very tough for us, but we knew what we were capable of doing. When he comes into the changing room he’s very calm in everything he does. He gives you specific details and is very detailed in everything he does give you and when you go on that pitch you know exactly what you want to do.

“And even after that, we’d won 5-1, you’d think he’d be crazy, going mad. But no he was just so calm. All he said was, ‘well done’. That was it!”

Laughing, he continued: “We just made history here, and when you look 20 years on, people are still remembering us for that game and that’s all he said! He was just so calm and calculated in everything that he did.”

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That qualifying match marked a huge moment in the historic footballing rivalry between the two nations.

The Germans held a clear lead in the group before the game with only one direct qualification spot up for grabs.

But England’s big win, their subsequent 2-0 victory over Albania and both side’s draws in their final qualifying game left them on the same number of points.

David Beckham netting that free-kick against Greece to bag England a 2-2 draw saw England directly advancing to the 2002 World Cup on goal difference.

Germany, meanwhile, were forced to enter the play-offs.

They went on to qualify and finish as runners up in South Korea and Japan, losing 2-0 to Brazil, who had knocked England out in the quarter-final with a 2-1 victory.

Eriksson was England boss from 2001 to 2006, and despite possessing a wealth of talent known as the ‘Golden Generation’ – including Beckham, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard – the quarter-finals was all they could manage in tournaments under him having lost on penalties to Portugal at both Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup.

An inability to accommodate a stacked midfield saw Scholes retire from international duty aged 30, while Gerrard and Frank Lampard never managing to gel in the middle together meant Eriksson get hugely criticised for not delivering a first major trophy since 1966.

However, Heskey believes failure to win silverware doesn’t make Eriksson’s time as England boss a failure.

Heskey said: “I think it’s just the British thing that we don’t respect other nations. I’m going to give you just my age group.

“[Thierry] Henry, [David] Trezeguet, [Nicolas] Anelka, [William] Gallas, [Mikael] Silvestre, Willy Sagnol, Ousmane Dabo – who has the golden generation?

“But then we don’t respect Brazil as well. We had a fabulous player in Michael Owen who’s a Ballon d’Or winner, we played against Brazil who had three Ballon d’Ors up front. Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. And then they put Kaka on the bench, another Ballon d’Or winner.”

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He continued: “I think we only look at what we’ve got in front of us and the Premier League at times and we don’t really respect what others possibly have.

“Henry at that time was unbelievable. We have to look at the best players at that time.”

Eriksson did win plenty of silverware despite being unlucky with England.

He won the UEFA Cup with Goteborg in 1971/72 and three Primeira Divisao titles and a Portuguese Cup with Benfica alongside finishing as runners up in both the European Cup and UEFA Cup across two spells.

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With Lazio, he won the Serie A title in 2000, along with two Coppa Italia and two Supercoppa Italianas.

He also won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, as well as finishing as runners up in the UEFA Cup.