In the space of a few minutes Sven-Goran Eriksson twice used the word "disaster". For a person of unswerving moderation that was the equivalent of rending his clothing and beating his fists on the floor.
The England manager was, for once, shocked and disturbed by defeat in a friendly. He could not treat a 4-1 defeat by Denmark with his usual indifference.
The result was so remarkable that a paper in his homeland Aftonbladet made it the front-page story on their sports section, despite Sweden beating the Czech Republic 2-1. England's failure in Copenhagen turned heads all across Europe. Now that the surprise has been absorbed, though, Eriksson has to decide what to make of it all.
"We can lose a friendly match now and again but not the way we did it here," he said of a game in which four goals were surrendered in the last half-hour. Defeat need not blight his team's season and the grand ambitions of this squad are scarcely to be abandoned either. The main effect was to remind everyone that England's venture is still a precarious one.
With the exception of Michael Owen, the strongest line-up was in action during a goalless first half and, broadly speaking, acquitted itself well enough to have merited a lead. Thereafter the side suffered from dilution by substitution. David James, the replacement goalkeeper, bungled incessantly but he was not the only person to come off the bench and undermine the team.
Glen Johnson continues to look a novice right back and it is likely that either Jamie Carragher or Phil Neville will have to be regarded as the natural deputy for Gary Neville.
Above all the manager will have to pray that he is not forced to turn to the understudies at all in fixtures that really matter.
"If we play like that again we might not even qualify for the World Cup," Eriksson said, hoping to scare all his players into alertness before the trip to Cardiff on September 3rd. In practice England would be very likely to advance automatically to the finals in Germany as one of the two best runners-up in Europe even if they did happen to finish in Poland's wake.
The misgivings about England relate to next summer's prospects. Eriksson was reminded at the Parken Stadium that there are no genuine alternatives to many members of his preferred line-up and he therefore has to be alarmed by the slightest hint that any of the key players could have a bad season.
The Coles must have perturbed him, with Ashley pinned down and harassed by Jesper Gronkjaer while, ahead of him, Joe was disconnected from the action. In central defence Rio Ferdinand began the night by conceding a corner and ended it watching Soren Larsen dart past him for the fourth Danish goal.
Eriksson has fewer options than he likes to pretend. Eriksson's areas of anxiety were exposed in Denmark. "I would have liked to have a time-out," he said of the second half in which the team collectively forgot all its instructions. It would have been better still if he could have got the match abandoned.
