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England need a draw against co-hosts Ukraine in their final Group D match to reach the Euro 2012 quarter-finals after Danny Welbeck scored a late winner in a 3-2 victory over Sweden at Kiev's Olympic Stadium.

In a match in which neither side's defence impressed, England were forced to recover from trailing in the second half after Olof Mellberg forced Glen Johnson to put past his own keeper and then scored himself to cancel out Andy Carroll's headed opening goal for England on 23 minutes.

Substitute Theo Walcott brought England level when he drove a shot straight down the middle of the goal on 64 minutes from outside of the area that somehow evaded Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson as he dived to his left. It was his first international goal since his hat-trick in a 4-1 win in Croatia almost four years ago.

Welbeck won it for England on 78 minutes with both sides pushing for the three points when he backheeled Walcott's cross into the net with the opposing defenders again caught marking fresh air.

England were marginally the better side on an evening of some mediocrity with Sweden heading home from the finals after their 2-1 loss to Ukraine in the opening match with followed by this defeat. They will not be a great miss to the tournament.

England conclude their Group D campaign against Ukraine in Donetsk on Tuesday with the co-hosts needing three points to deprive England of progress after their 2-0 loss to France earlier in the day.

France and England top the section on four points with the French warm favourites to progress as group winners if they can come up with a win over the already doomed Swedes.

Roy Hodgson's side will need to improve considerably to remain a threat in this tournament, mainly in defence and in their toiling efforts at ball retention, but will be boosted by the return of the suspended Wayne Rooney to face Ukraine.

Welbeck's winning goal gave them a first success over Sweden in competitive matches after two losses and five draws against the Scandinavian country on similar occasions.

Hodgson's decision to bring back Liverpool forward Carroll to replace the Arsenal teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seemed to be vindicated when Carroll rose to power a header into the net from 12 yards out after Steven Gerrard had provided a similar delivery that enabled Joleon Lescott to score with a header in the 1-1 draw against France.

England were leading 1-0 and comfortable with Isaksson diving to swat away a Scott Parker shot and Welbeck heading wide from James Milner's cross before Carroll finally unearthed the opening goal with his first start and first goal at a major finals.

With Sweden appearing impotent from open play, Ashley Young drove a shot into the side of the net as England disappeared up the tunnel looking relatively content.

There was a significant mood swing at the outset of the second half when the unmarked and bearded Mellberg prodded the ball over the line to bring Sweden level with England's defence in a ghastly state.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart palmed the ball into the midriff of Johnson, who failed to scramble the ball clear as it dropped over the line.

Suddenly England were being tested as Johnson was forced to make a fine tackle on Rasmus Elm before Sweden moved 2-1 clear as Mellberg rose unmarked to beat Hart with a header from Sebastian Larsson's free-kick.

It was awful defending with John Terry and Lescott nowhere to be seen.

Johnson's pace was again called upon when he raced back to prevent the moody Zlatan Ibrahimovic from getting a free shot at goal as Sweden pushed for a 3-1 lead.

England looked groggy, but dragged themselves back to 2-2 when Walcott's hopeful drive evaded Isaksson seconds after the goalkeeper superbly pawed away John Terry's header inside the Sweden box.

With one goal likely to settle matters either way, Ibrahimovic forced Hart to plunge to his right to divert a ferocious shot on 77 minutes.

It was left to Welbeck to drive the dagger into the hopes of over 20,000 Sweden fans in the 70,000 crowd when he brilliantly converted from Walcott's cross to seal the win.

England could have added to their total in added time, but Isaksson came up with another eye-catching save to halt Gerrard's volley with Walcott playing provider on the break. But England's work had been done for the night.

Fulham brought 10-man Liverpool’s eight-game undefeated streak in the league to an end with a 1-0 victory in an exciting Monday night encounter at Craven Cottage. 

Clint Dempsey tucked home the only goal of the game five minutes from time after Pepe Reina had spilled a distance effort from home captain and former Liverpool player Danny Murphy. 

Kenny Dalgish’s men hit the post once in each half thanks to quality efforts from Jordan Henderson and substitute Stewart Downing, but lost midfielder Jay Spearing 18 minutes from time for a two-footed lunge on Moussa Dembele

The dismissal sparked a late surge from the Whites, with Dempsey hitting the woodwork himself in the 80th minute before finally clinching a win for Martin Jol’s side which pulls them further away from the relegation zone. 

The two sides contested one of the choice games of last season in this very fixture back in May, and going down to a 5-2 home defeat will have played on the minds of the West Londoners and they looked determined to make amends from the outset. 

Indeed, the first real chance of the game came the hosts’ way on six minutes when Bryan Ruiz’s through pass from the left put Dembele one-on-one with Reina. 

But the goalkeeper timed his rush off the goal line perfectly and made himself big enough to block the Belgian’s strike, with Stephen Kelly closing down a Charlie Adam effort as Liverpool countered. 

Two minutes later, it was the turn of Reina’s opposite number Mark Schwarzer to pull off a similar block to deny Andy Carroll from converting Luis Suarez’s low cross. 

Dembele tested Reina again on 17, despite protests of a handball as he controlled before turning and unleashing a killer low 20-yarder to force a parry. 

Jordan Henderson’s exquisite chipped finish off the outside of his boot on 28 minutes at the end of a dazzling dribble would have made many a goal of the month competition had it not come back off the far post with Schwarzer left stranded. 

As the tempo remained breakneck, both sides looked as likely as the other to draw first blood and if it were
not for a vital sliding block by Brede Hangeland, Carroll would have done just that from another fine Suarez centre. 

Though the early stages of the second period could not hold a candle to the frenetic action of the first, the temperature went back up around the hour mark with counter after counter seeing Bobby Zamora and Craig Bellamy have shots closed down. 

Suarez’s run to try and beat the offside trap on 66 was every bit as delightful as the chipped assist into the danger zone he met from the foot of Jose Enrique, only for the assistant referee to decide he had indeed strayed beyond Hangeland just before putting the ball in the Fulham net. 

Six minutes later and the complexity of the game change, as despite Spearing winning the ball with his challenge on Dembele, his other leg came in dangerously behind the first causing him to virtually drop-kick the legs out from underneath the striker. 

Referee Kevin Friend did not hesitate to reach for his red card, and the home side were presented with a golden opportunity to search for three points against their fancied opponents. 

The best example of this came 10 minutes from time when Ruiz capped some majestic Whites passing with a short ball into the box on which Dempsey turned, faked Johnson into a red-faced stumble and chipped a wonderful finish onto the crossbar. 

After Dembele had fired at Reina as well as wide within a matter of minutes, it was Downing’s turn to find the woodwork after breaking loose from a crowd of three defenders to curl onto the near post.

But 60 seconds later, a breakaway from Fulham led to a corner which found its way back to taker Murphy, who cut inside his man and saw his low drive atypically spilled by Reina. 

Dempsey, a handful all game, was first to the loose ball and the struggling Londoners had the lead. 

And despite late substitutions and an injury to Murphy dragging three minutes of added time out to six, Fulham cleared a late barrage of crosses into their box – and almost added some gloss to the scoreline through Andy Johnson – to hold on and earn a priceless three points.

Fernando Torres had a Chelsea debut to forget as his new club were beaten 1-0 by former employers Liverpool in the Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge.

After a week of expectation surrounding the Spain striker's British record move to west London, it was Raul Meireles who was the hero thanks to his 69th-minute strike which sealed fourth-straight win for Kenny Dalglish's side and a league double for the Reds over their rivals from the capital.

The fact that Liverpool managed the victory without either of their own big-money signings in action will make victory all the sweeter. Andy Carroll is still missing through injury, while Luis Suarez was an unused substitute. Chelsea's other major January addition, David Luiz, was introduced after his new team were already behind.

The win moves Liverpool up to sixth in the table, while Chelsea remain fourth and 10 points behind leaders Manchester United following their defeat at Wolves on Saturday.

With all the attention focused on Torres's debut against his former club, and following an extraordinary set of results from Saturday's fixtures, it was perhaps no surprise that much of this clash was something of an anti-climax.

The recent history between these two clubs has served up its fair share of thrilling encounters, but equally there have been several damp squibs, and this match largely fell into the latter category.

However, Liverpool fans will not care about that after Torres had his inauspicious first appearance ended when he was substituted on 66 minutes, having had just 29 touches of the ball.

Even when freed from the restraints of trying to accommodate their new acquisition, Chelsea's attack continued to lack potency and invention as they struggled to find ways through Liverpool's five-man defence.

It looked as though Torres's Chelsea career was set to get off to a dream start when, in the second minute, Maxi Rodriguez played the ball right to the feet of his former team-mate. Torres headed for goal but, with Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel in front of him, he could bend his shot off target.

The returning Carragher, making his first appearance since November, was the bookies' favourite to foul Torres first, but it was Daniel Agger who took that dubious honour when he barged the Spaniard over midway through the half. The resulting free-kick led to a corner from which Branislav Ivanovic glanced wide.

Soon afterwards Didier Drogba played Torres through and the £50 million man got in behind Skrtel to shoot on the turn, but his strike was blocked by the diving Carragher.

Maxi's day went from bad to worse when Steven Gerrard's dangerous low ball across the six-yard box was turned on to the bar by the Argentine midfielder from point-blank range with the goal at his mercy.

The second half again failed to ignite, with clear chances few and far between. Glen Johnson fired a shot from range wide before Drogba had an effort inside the box blocked by Martin Kelly and Anelka fired wide from distance.

Torres's poor afternoon was ended on 66 minutes when he was replaced by Salomon Kalou, and he had barely got settled on his new team's bench when Liverpool went in front.

Petr Cech and Ivanovic had been at each other's throats in the first half when they got in each other's way trying to clear the ball, and their poor communication cost them a goal and ultimately the match. Both players left it to the other to deal with Gerrard's cross and the ball run between them and through to Meireles who finished to score his fourth goal in his last five games. It was the first league goal scored by a Liverpool player at Stamford Bridge since Bruno Cheyrou's strike in 2004.

The visiting fans, who had brought banners bearing slogans such as "He Who Betrays Will Always Walk Alone" and "Torres: a pawn on our chess board but the King remains", goaded their former idol with chants of "Torres, what's the score?", and Chelsea were unable to stem the abuse aimed at the bench by finding an equaliser.

The closest they came was when Anelka played through substitute Florent Malouda, whose shot at the near post was parried by Reina, and their desperate claims for a late penalty when Ivanovic was barged over by Johnson were ignored by the referee.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti vented his frustration at the fourth official, but he has now been left in no doubt about the task on his hands in fitting his new marquee signing into his team.