Lampard: We were really sluggish

Frank Lampard has admitted that it was not a vintage performance from England's 2-1 win over Japan.

The Chelsea midfielder told ITV Sport: "It's the build up, it's not an easy game, it wasn't a vintage performance, but it's about the players and we've played two games and won two games, and we've got two weeks to get ready for the real thing.

Glen Johnson failed to prevent Marcus Tulio Tanaka giving Japan a shock seventh minute lead from a corner.

England then had their opponents to thank after Tulio headed past his own goalkeeper and centre-back Yuji Nakazawa scoring another own goal to hand them a somewhat fortunate 2-1 win.

Fabio Capello was clearly unhappy with his team's first half sluggish performance, as shown by his five changes for the second half.

Reflecting on the second half, Lampard felt it was a much better improvement from the first, which he thought was sluggish.

"It's always down to the players at the end of the day. The first half was sluggish, the second half the play was quicker and we got the ball in their box a lot more."

Lampard saw his penalty saved by Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima early on in the second half which means he has missed his last two penalties after missing from the spot in the FA Cup final.

The Chelsea midfielder added: "It's down to the manager. I always want to take them but that's the way it is and it's much better to miss them now but if the manager wants me to take it, I will."

England are drawn alongside United States, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C and will kick off their World Cup campaign against the Americans on 12 June.