Glenn Hoddle (above) may not be prone to hyperbole, but the England coach went close to overkill in acclaiming England's victory, saying: "We could have taken them to the cleaners.

"After taking such a long time to get into the tournament, it was great to get off with a win," he said. "After we'd settled down after the first 15 minutes, certain individuals had tremendous games.

"This was a tricky game for us. I felt this was the worst time to play Tunisia with the heat and the fact that this was very much their World Cup final. But I was delighted with the way we performed. One swallow does not make a summer but today we looked assured and confident with what we were trying to do."

Having opted for Darren Anderton in the right-wing back role instead of David Beckham, Hoddle was quick to extol the virtues of the Tottenham man. "He worked absolutely tremendously down that right flank. He uses the ball well, and he's going to get stronger and stronger."

Hoddle reserved special praise, though, for Paul Scholes, the man who filled Paul Gascoigne's creative midfield role with conspicuous success.

"He played a super role just off the front two. He got into the box, timed his runs well, used the ball well, and can beat people. There were a lot of good things and Scholesy was behind them."

Scholes made few bones about feeling under pressure. "I felt I had to produce and maybe make or score a goal like I did. It was a great ball from Paul Ince. I was going to play the ball back to him but I miss-controlled it a bit so I just turned and hit it."

Alan Shearer revealed that the free-kick from which he scored England's opener had been well rehearsed. "We have worked on one or two set-pieces over the last few weeks and it is always nice when one comes that way," he said. "It was a tremendous ball from Graeme Le Saux. It's been a good result," he added, "but let's not get carried away."

Shearer also joined in the tributes to Scholes.

"If he had anything to left to prove, he's proved it today," declared the captain. Paul is a tremendous little player. Nothing fazes him at all and he never gets upset by any situation. Everybody wanted to know if he can take over Paul Gascoigne's role. If today was the test, then he's come through it with flying colours."

Tunisia's coach Henryk Kasperczak, who played for Poland when they thwarted England's hopes of reaching the 1974 World Cup finals, felt the game was lost in midfield. "Their midfield controlled the ball better than we did. They have some very good players who have very strong links to their strikers and they are very dangerous, especially in dead-ball situations."