However, having earlier seen Fabien Barthez save David Beckham’s penalty, England were stung when substitute Emile Heskey conceded a free-kick from which Zinedine Zidane equalised.

And if that was not bad enough, Zidane then converted a spot-kick in the final seconds after Steven Gerrard left a back-pass short and keeper David James brought down Thierry Henry in full fight.

It was the 1999 Champions League final all over again, only this time England - not Bayern Munich – were cast in the role of fall-guys.

However, Eriksson was only prepared to allow his players to bemoan their bad luck for a short while as he urged them to then cast this defeat, however hard it was to take, out of their minds.

For however cruel the final three minutes may have been, England can still recover – but only by defeating both Switzerland and Croatia in their two remaining group matches.

With those two sides having taken a point apiece from the other game in Group B, a draw and a win for England could, theoretically at least, be enough if France make a clean sweep.

And by the time that the players had emerged from their dressing-room, that message had been taken on board.

Striker Michael Owen revealed: “The manager has told us we could feel sad and sorry for ourselves, but not on Monday, when we have to get our attitude right to face Switzerland.

“We do feel disappointed, but we must pick our heads up. We’ve got to put a smile on our faces and get things right for that game.

“This was a bitter blow, but too many good things happened out there for us to feel the night had been a total write-off.”

Eriksson added: “We have got to get our heads up, play football like this and you will see England in the quarter-finals. We were very unlucky but I am hopeful that we will meet France on the fourth of July and I don’t think we would have bad luck twice.”

England had started confidently enough, only for France to start to exploit the gaps on their left flank, given Paul Scholes’ tendency to push inside.

However, while David Trezeguet headed one chance over the bar, there was still little warning when England seized the lead with 39 minutes gone.

Having induced a foul to earn a free-kick, Beckham provided the perfect dead-ball delivery and Lampard was on hand to head home.

Eriksson’s side survived until half-time and having then withstood increasing French pressure, they earned their penalty when Mikael Silvestre brought down Wayne Rooney in full fight.

Beckham, who had slipped before ballooning his previous England penalty over the bar in Istanbul, was nevertheless foiled by Barthez, his former Manchester United team-mate.

Zinedine Zidane observed: “Fabien made the difference to us as he allowed us to stay at 0-1 and gave us the belief that we could go on and score at any moment.”

And so it proved. Although England defended doggedly and looked to be almost home and dry, that was reckoning without Zidane’s majestic talent as he struck twice within stoppage-time.

Patrick Vieira added: “I was surprised by the English game. They were very defensive. But we were very strong as a group, even when England made a lot of fouls.

“We would have thought 1-1 was a good result but the luck we didn’t have in the 2002 World Cup, we had tonight.”

France lost that opening game against Senegal and self-capitulated thereafter. Eriksson’s task now is to ensure his own team do not do the same.

The Swede, who had praise for Ledley King and Rooney on their tournament debuts, concluded: “If we had lost 3-0 and not created a chance, it would be different.

“But the players are professional and know they did an excellent job. They did everything we asked of them and hopefully it will not be too difficult to lift them up.

“If we played this game again, I wouldn’t change the tactics at all – except that, in the last three minutes, we would put the ball in the stand.”