England have spent the last 12 days convincing themselves that, under Sven-Goran Eriksson, a new age has finally dawned. So what better place then than Athens, which has seen a few of these, to test the truth of such a renaissance.

Of itself, a 4-0 victory in a friendly against a mediocre Mexico team passing through Derby en route for the Far East is not a lot to go on. More important is the fact that Eriksson's players believe they are part of an England revival, and a win against Greece in tonight's World Cup qualifier would strengthen that belief.

Confidence in footballers is a fragile commodity at the best of times. Yet it is hard to believe that in less than a fortnight England will have entirely lost the ebullient form they displayed at Pride Park. Anything less than an English win tonight, therefore, will be as big a surprise as it is a disappointment. While Eriksson expects the resolve of Vassilis Daniil's Greek team to be stiffened by Saturday's 1-0 World Cup win against Albania, he clearly trusts that the qualities now apparent in his own side will be more than enough to preserve England's 100 per cent record in the Hellenes.

With all his players reporting fit after the minor aches and strains of La Manga, Eriksson should recall David Seaman in goal in place of Nigel Martyn, play Steve McManaman on the left instead of Emile Heskey, and leave the rest unaltered.

Daniil will make four changes, two of them forced on him by the loss of Christos Patsatzoglou and Giorgos Giorgiadis, a defender and a wing-back, to suspensions. He has also swapped his strikers around, bringing in Zissis Vryzas and Nikos Machlas, who came off the bench on Saturday to score the winner against Albania.

The Greek coach, at odds with his football federation over a new contract, is shortly due to disappear whatever the result tonight. Eriksson, on the other hand, will have made the best start of any England manager or coach should his team achieve a fifth consecutive win.

"I think it's great when you do so well as a team that people expect you to win," he agreed yesterday, "but no one should assume that it will be an easy game for us tomorrow.

"I expect Greece to play against us the same way they did against Albania. That is with three central defenders, two wingbacks, three central midfielders and two strikers."

"I think the Greeks know that if they want to come second in the group they must beat us. I certainly hope they attack us. And while I hope we score an early goal, you can never adopt that as a tactic because it can be very dangerous."

The best thing for England would be if a fear of Michael Owen's pace anchored the Greek defence to its penalty area, which would allow Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and McManaman more room in midfield. Should the Greek defence try to press up they would expose themselves to the sort of ball over the top on which Owen thrives.

This evening's atmosphere in the Olympic stadium will be a grimly partisan as ever. Happily for England, the men Eriksson intends to field have long since become accustomed to the ways of foreign fans on the playing fields of Europe. "I hope the atmosphere will affect our players in a positive way," he said yesterday. "They are used to playing in games like this."

Eriksson needs to complete his first phase as England coach with a victory which would set the scene for the second, namely the final push for World Cup qualification starting with the game against Germany in Munich on September 1st. Should a win here tonight be accompanied by news of a Germany slip-up in Albania, then so much the better for England.

Greece suffered a major setback yesterday when Andreas Zikos walked out of the squad, leaving the coach Vassilis Daniil with severely depleted midfield recources. Zikos left after being told by Daniil that he was unlikely to make the starting line-up. The 26-year-old was a surprise absentee from the bench for the 1-0 win over Albania on Saturday.