Wednesday, June 21 2006 15:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Berlin: England nervously avoided a highly-charged World Cup showdown with bitter rivals Germany on Tuesday when Sven-Goran Eriksson's men drew 2-2 with Sweden to set up a last 16 clash with Ecuador. Germany clinched Group A with an impressive 3-0 win over the South American outsiders and will now face the Swedes for a place in the quarter-finals.

England won Group B but the result in Cologne came at a high cost with star striker Michael Owen being stretchered off with a knee injury after just one minute. Eriksson admitted that the outlook was not good for Owen.

"Maybe he's out of the tournament, I'm not sure. It doesn't look good," said the Swede.

Skipper David Beckham admitted the injury to his teammate looked like a bad one.

"I think it's bad," he said.

A scrambled 90th-minute goal from Henrik Larsson earned Sweden a share of the spoils in Cologne.

The result ensured England will face Ecuador in Stuttgart on Sunday while Sweden will now face Germany in Munich on Saturday.

Substitute Steven Gerrard appeared to have headed England's winner five minutes from time after Sweden's Marcus Allback had cancelled out Joe Cole's stunning first-half strike from long range.

But Larsson steered home a long throw on 90 minutes to earn Sweden a precious point and guarantee their place in the second phase. Eriksson said it was mission accomplished.

"The result was very important, we wanted to win the group and we did it. We didn't defend very well against set pieces and we have to work on that in training before the next game. But Sweden are very strong in that area," said the coach.

"We have to do that better in future but the most important thing was to win the group and I'm very happy about that," he said.

Compounding Eriksson's problems was a spectacular touchline tantrum thrown by Wayne Rooney after the Manchester United star, starting a match for the first time since breaking his foot in April, was taken off in the second half and replaced by Gerrard. Rooney threw his boots to the ground and fumed in the dug-out.

"Rooney was more upset with himself that he didn't play as well as he wanted to in the second half," said Eriksson.

"But it's coming, he's getting better and better and I took him off because we can't risk him getting injured by playing him too much too early," he said.

The move paid dividends when Gerrard headed England into a 2-1 lead before Larsson's late leveller.

In Berlin, Germany recorded a third straight win to finish top of Group A with two goals from Miroslav Klose and one from Lukas Podolski to gun down a weakened Ecuador 3-0.

Klose said the Germans had underlined their intent. "We absolutely want to be world champions and I think you saw our intentions today," he said.

"That was a top performance. We were convincing right from the word go. I am proud of the team. I have great ambition and so has the team," he said.

Poland salvaged some pride with a 2-1 win over Costa Rica to finish third in Group A while Paraguay ended the World Cup adventure of Trinidad and Tobago, winning 2-0 to take third spot in Group B.