England coach Sven Goran Eriksson struggled to hide his disappointment after his side's 1-1 draw with Sweden.
He said: "It was a fair result but we could have scored a second goal in the first half and won the game.
"But Sweden played well in the second half and scored their goal."
However Eriksson put the result in perspective, telling his players: "When you lead 1-0 and then
draw, it feels like you've lost.
"You shouldn't feel like that but that was the feeling in the dressing room
after the game so I told them we are not at a funeral.
"We have just started the World Cup and of course we can still get through.
"Everything is still possible as it's very tight."
England took the lead through Sol Campbell's powerful header and enjoyed a greater share of possession in the first 45 minutes.
However, their advantage was not converted to goals and Sweden grew in confidence after the interval.
And when Danny Mills' attempted clearance, after his poor control, fell to Niclas Alexandersson, the Swede smashed the ball past David Seaman to level the score.
Eriksson, though, refused to lay the blame on Mills.
He said: "In football, sometimes you make mistakes. But it might not have mattered if we had scored that second goal."
The England coach also explained that David Beckham's substitution on 63 minutes was precautionary, allaying fears about the captain's recently recovered foot.
"Beckham was tired, playing his first game for seven or eight weeks. I thought it would be better for him to come off," he said.
And he conceded that England now face a tough a task to qualify with Argentina their next opponents on Friday and Nigeria to follow.
"Both of the next games are very important and very difficult. We thought we should win this game but the second half did not go as well as the first," Eriksson said.
Striker Michael Owen was more upbeat about the result and admitted he was pleased that England avoided defeat.
He said: "Obviously we would have preferred to have got the three points but the main thing in the first game is not to get beaten and, thankfully, we haven't.
"It sets it up for an even nicer game against Argentina and we need to get something out of that game now as well."