John Terry today sent a warning to England's World Cup rivals by claiming Fabio Capello has transformed the team into one of the world's strongest sides in just a year, writes Simon Johnson.

Terry scored the winner as Capello's men, deprived of nine regulars, produced an assured performance to beat Germany 2-1 in last night's friendly in Berlin.

England are tenth in the current FIFA rankings, but they are certain to move up the table at the end of what has been a perfect year for Capello, who said: "It is impossible to be better than this. We had played nine games and after every one I said the players had taken another step forward. This is another one."

Terry believes the position does not represent how much they have improved under Capello, one year on from the 3-2 defeat at Wembley by Croatia that stopped them qualifying for Euro 2008.

He said: "I think we are a lot higher in the world than the rankings show. We are aiming to get higher and the way to do that is qualify for a big tournament top of the group and then do really well in that tournament.

"Hopefully we are going to get better and better each year. We don't want to hit our peak now and then have nothing left in the tank by the time the World Cup comes in 2010.

"We have an awful lot still to learn from the manager and each other and hopefully we will get to the World Cup in top form."

In November last year, Croatia's victory led to the sacking of Steve McClaren and the arrival of Capello. Since the Italian took the reins, England have won all four of their competitive matches, and the triumph in Berlin was more proof of how quickly they are progressing.

England's next World Cup qualifier is against Ukraine at Wembley on 1 April and Terry added: "It has been a good year. The more experienced players know we have to keep our feet on the ground and make sure we go again next year.

"There have been some promising and disappointing things in the year but overall there are more good things than bad things and we are getting better."

Terry's central defensive partner Matthew Upson scored the opening goal for England after 23 minutes, with the captain's winner arriving six minutes from full-time. Germany equalised 18 minutes into the second half when Patrick Helmes took advantage of a mix-up between Terry and substitute goalkeeper Scott Carson, returning to the side one year after his high-profile mistakes against Croatia.

In the absence of Rio Ferdinand, Upson was solid alongside Terry and the West Ham centre-back revealed: "I am now approaching England games with a better mentality. When I was a younger player, I didn't do that."

David James believes the defeat to the Croats may now be the best thing that has happened to the English game.

The keeper insists that failing to qualify for the European Championships means England are in far better shape to reach, and do well in, the 2010 World Cup than if they had made it to this summer's tournament.

He admitted: "It might have been a better thing to be beaten by Croatia. We could have ended up going to a tournament, not performing well, and a new manager would have had no time to turn things around.

"Capello took over last December and the nine months he had before our first competitive game gave him the chance to decide which players he wanted. We are beating teams like Germany in Germany and we are so confident now."