France 1 England 0

David Beckham does not want it to be 100 and out after racking up a century of England caps in last night's 1-0 defeat by France in Paris.

The midfielder started the match on the right side of midfield and put in some trademark crosses before he was replaced by David Bentley in the second half and came off to a standing ovation.

''I'm very honoured,'' Beckham said. ''Straight from when I started playing for England I never dreamed I'd get 100 caps, and hopefully beyond.

''I'm happy but like I said during the week I want to carry on. Of course things can change but I want to carry on playing for my country.''

This was the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder's first competitive match of the year because Major League Soccer is still in the off-season, and Beckham was pleased with his showing after being omitted from the squad for Fabio Capello's first match against Switzerland.

''I've proved my fitness, that's the biggest thing,'' he added. ''We're not into our season yet but I felt great, I felt a lot better than I thought I would.''

The 32-year-old is now only eight caps short of World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore, who holds the record for most appearances by an outfield player.

Beckham, though, claimed his focus is not on trying to beat Moore, saying: ''Just to go over the 100 mark is a proud moment.

''To be up there with Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Billy Wright and Peter Shilton, I'm honoured to be in that company.''

Capello was pleased by the way his side played.

''I'm actually quite happy because I have seen improvements,'' he said.

''We played against a top-level team and I think we did well.''

As for why he was so pleased, the Italian said: ''The way we played, we didn't let the opposition play too much and especially, the way we played with personality.

''We did especially well in the first half, but unfortunately we conceded the penalty, the goal.''

Asked about James' culpability for the goal, Capello said: ''I didn't see it clearly but I don't think he could have done better.''

As for his substitutions, Capello said they were not prompted by individual performances.

''No, I need to see all the players play, especially in real matches like this, to get a clear idea of what to do when the World Cup qualifying campaign starts.''

As for Beckham, the Italian said: ''Yes I saw him well, he was fit and could have carried on playing. I subbed him because I needed to see other players as well.''

Captain for the night Rio Ferdinand admitted the result was not the ideal way to cap off his big match.

''It's disappointing but I think it's more about the team,'' the Manchester United defender said.

''You could say we took a stride forward in certain areas; the players were not scared to get on the ball, we were passing it very well at times."