English are not Euro-sceptic

Whether a country's footballing strength should be judged by its national team or its leading multi-national sides is a moot point.

England, for the moment, are proud of their native players and as all but one of Sven-Goran Eriksson's first choices prepare for the opening group phase of the Champions League the question may seem irrelevant.

Tonight, as Liverpool take on Boavista, the Portuguese champions, Anfield will expect Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey to carry on the good work not only from the 5-1 rout of Germany in Munich 10 days ago but the team's impressive run, in both the Champions League qualifiers and the Super Cup which preceded it.

Similarly, Arsenal will trust that the experienced goalkeeping of David Seaman and precocious talents of Ashley Cole at left back will help them avoid an early mishap in Mallorca. Also that Sol Campbell, should he be preferred in defence to Martin Keown or Tony Adams, does not repeat against Real those vulnerable moments which helped Germany take an early lead and, at St James' Park last Wednesday, encouraged Albania in the belief that they could deny England victory.

Tomorrow, in Piraeus, Manchester United will trust that David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville continue to perform as well against Olympiakos as they did against both the Germans and the Albanians, albeit in slightly different roles. All three matches, then, will have a more fervent patriotic edge than usual, but in the Champions League patriotism is never enough.

Arsenal and Manchester United, for instance, will depend as much on echoes of how the last World Cup was won by France as the manner in which England now look like qualifying for the next.

Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry may have been bit-players in 1998 but when France became European champions in Holland and Belgium last summer both were nothing less than essential to the plot and remain Highbury's best hopes of making serious progress in the Champions League this season.

The efforts made by Alex Ferguson this summer to obtain France's Lilian Thuram and Bixente Lizarazu before eventually buying their 35-year-old compatriot Laurent Blanc emphasised the high regard in which the Manchester United manager continues to hold French football. Yet, his success in getting the Argentine Juan Veron to Old Trafford could be as significant for United's chances in the Champions League as was the arrival of Eric Cantona for the first of Ferguson's Premier League titles eight years ago.

As to the defence, well, Olympiakos - formidable at home if frail away - should provide an early test of Ferguson's wisdom in selling Jaap Stam, whom Blanc could have complemented rather than replaced.

By their own standards, United have flopped in the last two tournaments, beaten in the quarter-finals first by Real Madrid and then, depressingly, by a workmanlike but hardly awesome Bayern Munich. Yet the fact that Bayern went on to win the last tournament after beating Real Madrid, the favourites, in the semi-finals should encourage all three of England's representatives this time.

Bayern demonstrated that once a team reaches the quarter-finals the evidence of the two group stages becomes meaningless.

So Arsenal and Liverpool, as well as Manchester United, know that if they can get to the last eight and find form, while staying clear of injuries and suspensions, the prospect of the European Cup returning to England will be real enough.

United know the Champions League ropes and Arsenal, having at last broken their previously mundane mould in the tournament, should gain from last season's progress beyond the second round. The aplomb with which Liverpool swept aside Haka in the qualifiers also suggests a respectable run.

Not that any judgments need be made on the results of matches played over the next 48 hours. The Champions League is merely embarking on the two-group treadmill that was wished on the old European Cup by television companies demanding a guaranteed national interest for their money and clubs not wanting the gravy train to come off the rails at the first bend.

Into this financial truffle hunt come Celtic, whose game against Rosenborg Trondheim tomorrow will be a useful test of the true currency of Martin O'Neill's domestically omnipotent side. So long as Henrik Larsson stays fit anything is possible.