Ninety seconds into the half Cole crossed from the left, Fowler laid the ball back for Murphy and his shot took a huge deflection off Carlos Gamarra to loop past Tavarelli.The goal settled the youngsters and their zest for the ball soon led to a third. Cole dispossessed Gavilan on the half-way line and broke forward before feeding Vassell with a neat back-heel. The Villa striker, who had not scored since his debut goal for England in Amsterdam two months ago, took aim and, to his delight, saw his shot deflect off Gavilan and past the unfortunate Tavarelli. Gavilan’s unhappy re-acquaintance with English football was soon complete as he became the first Paraguayan subbed.More trickery from Cole ought to have led to a second from Vassell before he, and the remaining starting outfielders, were replaced. The lack of defenders on the bench meant Hargreaves switched to right-back with Jamie Carragher in the centre. With Paraguay further disheartened after Ayala’s shoulder diverted Fowler’s cross into his own goal, the closing stages lacked meaning. Even so, the increasingly impressive Murphy would have treasured his curling shot had it resulted in England’s fifth.ENGLAND (4-4-2): Seaman (Arsenal); G Neville (Man Utd), Keown (Arsenal), Southgate (Middlesbrough), Bridge (Southampton); Butt (Manchester Utd), Gerrard (Liverpool), Scholes (Manchester Utd), Dyer (Newcastle); Owen (Liverpool), Vassell (Aston Villa).

Substitutes: Sinclair (West Ham) for Gerrard, h-t; Mills (Leeds) for Keown, h-t; Cole (West Ham) for Butt, h-t; Fowler (Leeds) for Scholes, h-t; Hargreaves (Bayern Munich) for Owen, h-t; Murphy (Liverpool) for Dyer, h-t; Sheringham (Tottenham) for Southgate, 68; P Neville (Manchester Utd) for Bridge, 69; Carragher (Liverpool) for G Neville, 69; Lampard (Chelsea) for Vassell, 69).PARAGUAY (4-3-1-2): Tavarelli (Olimpia); Arce (Palmeiras), Ayala (River Plate), Gamarra (AEK Athens) Caniza (Santos Laguna); Gavilan (Newcastle), Bonet (Libertad), Struway (Libertad); Paredes (Porto); Cardozo (Toluca), Santa Cruz (Bayern Munich). Substitutes: Pedro Sarabia (River Plate) for Gavilan, 57; R Baez (Olimpia) for Cardozo, 60; Caceres (Olimpia) for Gamarra, 82; Morinigo (Libertad) for Bonet, 83.Referee: C Bolognino (Italy).. As Tiger Woods moved relentlessly towards victory in the final round of the Masters last week, it was possible to detect in the voices of television commentators and analysts the implication that his challengers had either thrown in the towel or jumped off the pier. One of the phrases used was “mass suicide” which, to my mind, is hardly fair.With the benefit of hindsight some kinder conclusions may by now have been reached relating to the position into which Woods put himself after shooting through the field with a terrific third-round 66 followed by two birdies in the first three holes on Sunday.The effect of the latter was pressure.

Pressure on Woods’ playing partner Retief Goosen who, going off level, bogeyed the first, failing thereafter to mount a threat. Pressure on Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, pressure on every player with thoughts of being in serious contention. One by one they slipped away mainly through being forced to gamble on shots to wicked pin positions.What, we might ask, would the outcome have been if a marvellous approach by Els had stayed dead against the cup instead of spinning back yards off the green; if Singh had made a deserved birdie instead of unluckily finding water, a calamity that would cost him four shots? Golf is full of stories like that. No luck, not much anyway, was attached to Woods’ victory, his seventh major championship, and to be in meticulous control of proceedings was further proof of excellence that may see him overtake every record in the game, including Jack Nicklaus’s haul of 18 major titles.A friend who backed Woods to win at the ridiculously short price of 11-4 (the defending champion had come in further by the time he teed off on Thursday) did so on the basis of the defending champion’s two wins at Augusta National and the suitability of his game. As it turned out, attempts to increase the degree of difficulty for Woods and other big hitters in the field were self-defeating.