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Capello 'not feeling pressure' from semi-final target

07/05/2008

England head coach Fabio Capello has rubbished suggestions that the Football Association's specific targets have not put him under any pressure.

As part of a document setting out its goals for the next four years under the Italian's regime, the FA has stated that it expects a minimum achievement of a place in the semi-finals of a major tournament.

This means Capello must deliver a berth in the last four of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa or the European Championships in Ukraine and Poland in 2012.

However, the former Real Madrid boss claims this would have been his minimum target anyway and it does not come as a shock to him that the FA have set their targets at this level.

"We must be positive and my personal objective in every team I have coached was to go to the top," he said.

"I am not under any pressure. It's no problem for me and it's no surprise these targets have been set. I believe that it's important to have these targets and to work towards them.

"We should all be confident of this because the team I have at the moment is capable of reaching these objectives."

The last time England reached the last four at a major tournament was on home soil at Euro '96 when they lost on penalties to eventual winners Germany.

And the same fate befell the national side when they reached the semi-finals at the World Cup in Italy in 1990, with the Germans again emerging victorious in a spot-kick competition.