'Wilshere is a very good player. He is young and he has played a lot of games this season. But the games they play against Barcelona will be really strong games. It will be really interesting for me.

'Wilshere has to learn and he has to improve. But I think to play like this in his first game for the national team with this confidence - it is tough to find one player like him. For this reason I am really happy about his performance.'

So he should be, because Wilshere is the most exciting English player to emerge since Wayne Rooney burst on to the international scene eight years ago. Another Englishman with true international class. Another reason to be more optimistic about the future.

With a European Championship qualifier against Wales coming at the end of next month Capello has much to think about, particularly when it comes to the deployment of Wilshere.

Right now, Frank Lampard looks like losing out because England would certainly look more secure if Steven Gerrard was deployed alongside Wilshere.

Lampard's failure to offer any kind of defensive cover was one of the problems on Wednesday. For the Liverpool man, however, it comes more naturally.

It is not an entirely satisfactory solution but if Capello intends to continue with two wingers and a centre forward in front of Wayne Rooney, then the two central midfielders must sit a little deeper, and Gerrard and Wilshere would seem the best partnership.

Lampard should not be written off, especially when his season with Chelsea has been so troubled by injury, but at this moment he looks like an extremely useful understudy to Gerrard. And Scott Parker is possibly now ahead of Gareth Barry as the deputy to Wilshere.

'In the second half the organisation was better,' said Capello, and that owed much to the attention Parker paid to impressive Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen.

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