With just 11 days until England meet Paraguay in their opening match of the finals, head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson presented his vision of how England will cope with the absence of Wayne Rooney, at least for the group stages of the tournament.

Steven Gerrard was pushed forward into the spaces Rooney normally fills behind Michael Owen while his Liverpool team-mate Jamie Carragher, a centreback by trade, was drafted into the midfield holding role.

Against Hungary, at least, it worked, as second-half goals from Gerrard, John Terry and Peter Crouch delivered an ultimately comfortable victory, albeit one in which England were disjointed for long periods.

The early signs had been promising enough.

Carragher's well-timed intervention and drive towards Hungary's box won a first-minute corner that Beckham bent on to the head of Terry, the Chelsea defender directing his effort over the bar.

Then, with ten minutes on the clock, Gerrard, surging forward a la Rooney, might have been awarded a penalty after being upended as he entered Hungary's box.

The early urgency gave way to sloppiness and a better team than Hungary would surely have punished England's casual attitude to possession for much of the opening period.

The visitors, however, were unable to translate some good positions into a single shot on target and England suddenly emerged from the lethargy in the final five minutes of the half.

The improvement was kickstarted by a swift counter-attack in which Lampard and Gerrard combined to release Joe Cole, whose run was ended abruptly on the edge of the area.

Beckham curled the resulting free-kick narrowly over but England appeared to have recovered a belief in their ability to kill off their unchallenging opponents.

A minute later Beckham's superb cross from close to the corner flag landed right on the head of Owen, whose header drew an astonishing reflex save from Gabor Kiraly at virtually point blank range.

That did not avert the danger for Hungary and when Gerrard gathered the loose ball he took advantage of a desperate lunge by Csaba Feher to win England a penalty, although replays revealed that the defender had not actually made any contact.

Lampard struck the spot-kick firmly but Kiraly was equal to it, diving low to his right to save and the high-bouncing rebound was headed over by Owen.

A minute later, another impeccable cross from Beckham picked out Cole and the Chelsea midfielder's glancing header beat Kiraly only to come back off the inside of the post, before being hooked away by Laszlo Eger.

Hungary were riding their luck and it ran out within a minute of the restart.

Allowed a generous amount of time in a deep position close to the right touchline, Beckham launched another delivery towards the penalty spot and Gerrard, charging in from the left, headed it powerfully past the Hungarian goalkeeper.

The England captain promptly repeated the trick from the other side of the pitch, his inswinging free-kick finding Terry, who nodded in his first international goal.

Having been outsung for most of the first half by the small contingent of visiting supporters, the Old Trafford crowd indulged itself with a few chants of "Easy, Easy."

But their taunts were silenced when Hungary's captain Pal Dardai put his side back into the contest with a superb 55th-minute strike. Collecting a pass 25 yards out, Dardai cut across Owen Hargreaves and found the top corner of the net with a right-foot drive.

Ten minutes later, Theo Walcott became England's youngest ever international when he was brought on in place of the tiring Owen, while Gerrard made way for Crouch.

Walcott's pace certainly troubled a tiring defence -- arguably vindicating Eriksson's vision of the 17-year-old's contribution to the squad. But it was Crouch who was to make the game safe for England.

Receiving Joe Cole's pass on the edge of the area, the giant Liverpool striker swivelled round his marker and planted a low, right-foot shot beyond Kiraly's right hand.