Fabio hails 'dream' year

Capello: Happy with progress

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England manager Fabio Capello has conceded he could not have imagined a better year following Wednesday's 2-1 friendly success over Germany.

The experienced Italian tactician has now been at the Three Lions helm for 10 games and has tasted defeat just once - against France in March.

More importantly, England have made a blistering start to their World Cup qualifying campaign having won all four of their matches to date.

Capello was not expecting an overnight change after succeeding Steve McClaren at the start of the year and he has been pleased with the gradual improvement over the course of his tenure.

Better year

"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."

Interesting game

Both England and Germany used Wednesday's friendly to give younger players a chance to stake their claim for a regular berth 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.

"I said yesterday I had confidence in my team because the players know what I want from them during the game, what they have to do.

"We played very well, with confidence. All the players used good technique."