It seemed more like a friendly than a World Cup group decider, but England's 1-0 loss to Belgium has somewhat put a dent in the country's blossoming momentum.

Adnan Januzaj's curled effort was enough to secure a win for Roberto Martinez's men, in a game where both sides made a total of 17 changes from their last games.

From the off, it was pretty clear that neither side were that fussed about winning, but England were particularly below par.

None of the big guns like Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling were summoned from the bench with Gareth Southgate's team chasing the game.

It's because finishing runner-up has given them a perceived 'easier' route, avoiding Brazil in the quarter-finals, as they will instead face either Switzerland or Sweden if they can get past Colombia.

And that is a pretty big if too, with players ike Falcao, Juan Cuadrado, Juan Quintero at their disposal, plus James Rodriguez (injury permitting).

If England do lose, the gamble will have backfired spectacularly on Southgate, given they are 12 years without a knockout victory in a major tournament.

That came against Ecuador in a 1-0 victory in 2006, thanks to a David Beckham free-kick, and it was Sven-Goran Eriksson's penultimate game in charge.

Undoubtedly, Sweden and Switzerland pose a lesser test than Mexico or Brazil would, but they should not be counting their chickens just yet.

Eriksson believes that his former team have messed it up, and in his opinion they are now on a more difficult side of the draw.

"I'm a little surprised because everybody seems to be happy in England, thinking they are now on the right side of the World Cup draw because they've avoided the half with Brazil," he started.

"In the last 30 years, how many times have England beaten Sweden? Not often -- twice.

"It would be easier for England to beat Brazil than to beat Sweden in my opinion, Sweden today are a very hard team to break down.

"Their strikers are defenders when it's time to defend and they can defend in their own box as well.

"During my time with England we met [Sweden] four times. We lost once, and the others were a draw and, going back before that, Sweden have beaten England in big games."

While Sweden have proved they are no pushovers in Russia, to claim they are a more formidable opponent than Brazil is simply ludicrous.

Eriksson does fancy both England and Sweden to progress, but it's highly unlikely his countrymen would be favourites.