Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the game on his return as England progressed to the quarterfinals as Group D winners with a 1-0 win over Ukraine in Donetsk.
Rooney, playing his first match of Euro 2012 after serving a two-match suspension, headed in to an open goal in the 48th minute to hand England three points and a match against Italy in the last-eight.
In the day's other game a sluggish France went down to Sweden, but the Euro 2000 champions still went through as runners-up. France will now face the daunting task of taking on Spain in the quarters.
Roy Hodgson made just one change from England's previous match against Sweden, bringing in "England's Pele" Rooney for Andy Carroll as James Milner started despite suggestions of Theo Walcott, who won the match for England in the last game, getting a run in from the start.
Ukraine dominated the match from the beginning, but the only goal came when Rooney could do anything but miss. A cross from Steven Gerrard, took two deflections on the way after which Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov failed to gather, allowing Rooney to head into an empty net from barely a yard out.
Calls for goal-line technology will increase as Ukraine were left fuming just past the hour mark when Marko Devic's shot was cleared off the line by John Terry. Despite several protests from the home side, the referee did not give a goal and replays suggested the ball had indeed crossed the line, before Terry's intervention.
Rooney was delighted to score the winning goal on his return. "Obviously I was delighted with the win and to score.
"I haven't scored at a major tournament for a while (since 2004) so it was nice to get a goal which won us the game.
"We stuck in well at times against a difficult crowd and overall we deserved the win.
The Manchester United striker added he was not concerned about their quarterfinal opponents. "I said before it doesn't matter. The main thing was to get through the group and to finish top.
"We know our qualities and what we're capable of. We've worked hard, done a lot of tactical play in training. We're difficult to beat and I don't think any team will fancy playing us.
Gerrard was happy to get the job done. "It was a difficult group and the idea was to try and win it," the England captain told ITV.
"No-one believed in us at the start but we're gaining momentum at the right time.
"I don't think tonight's performance was fantastic, but we stuck together, got the job done and won 1-0 against a good team.
"We've been criticised in the past maybe for not turning up, under-performing and we can take that, we're man enough. But you saw a reaction.
"When you get criticised it's not nice and you have to react by playing better and I think that's what we did."
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin was visibly unhappy with the goal that was not given and the refereeing in the game. "There are five referees on the pitch and the ball is 50 centimetres behind the goal-line. Write what you want. You've seen it.
"Why do we need five referees if Carroll plays with his elbows or Terry fouls from behind?
"I do not want to talk about referees. But I would not like to blame everything on referees."
Blokhin then lost his cool with a journalist. "You should respect that I played football. Did you play football?" snapped the coach.
"Respect my job and me. I won't allow anyone to criticise my team, about (Oleh) Gusev or (Andriy) Shevchenko. If you're a man, go with me. One on one."
