David Beckham lived up to him fame at the Gotttlieb-Daimler stadium as his trademark free kick helped England into the last eight, beating Ecuador 1-0 at their World Cup second round encounter in Stuttgart yesterday.

The skipper curled in a free-kick over the wall from the left flank in the 60th minute, as keeper Cristian Mora reached his fingertips to the ball, but was unable to keep it out off the right post.

"It was a great feeling to get a goal and put us through the quarter-final," said Beckham, who became the first England player to score at three World Cups.

Defender John Terry added: "I thought we did well. We were a bit slow in the first half but the goal helped. Becks has been banging them in training all week and he was fantastic today."

"I didn't feel well before the game but I thought I would be fine and in the first half I felt fine, but the sickness continued in the second half and it just came out," said the England captain.

Ecuador got their best chance of scoring at the 11 minutes when forward Carlos Tenorio hit the crossbar after a late slide from Ashley Cole.

"Who grab the chance, who will win the game, that is football. Our players did well today, We were just unlucky," said Ecuador's coach Luis Suarez.

England suffered from a slow start and had their first effort on target after 15 minutes. Wayne Rooney's floated effort was met by the footballing equivalent of cricket's long barrier.

"We did well in the first half, but Beckham's goal was just on time. We could do better in the second half," added Luis Suarez.

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson believes his 4-5-1 formation was justified by saying "I think it worked - the formation,"

"We should have scored more goals but I am rather happy that we are in the quarter-finals again," Eriksson added.

"It was an ugly performance but it was what we wanted and we'll take ugly performances," added the England captain.

Later on, Steven Gerrard tried to bend a shot inside the far post from 25 yards out, but the shot lacked the height and went out for a goal kick.

Lampard ran onto a loose ball in the center of pitch and fired, but his shot was easily stopped by goalkeeper Mora.

Five minutes later, Beckham's free kick from 30 yards just missed the target wide as Mora would have had no chance to stop it.

"We have not performed as well as we can do but it will come later," added Beckham.

England found their pace in the second half as Gerrard broke down the left and sent in a cross that keeper Mora was nowhere to stop.

Fortunately for Ecuador, no one was on the end of it.