England coach Sven Goran Eriksson (GaryMPrior/Allsport)

The nation has been eagerly awaiting the day when England might qualify for next summer's World Cup Finals and after the painful defeat against Germany in the opening group match 364 days ago, a win over Greece at Old Trafford this afternoon will heal old wounds.

Eriksson has been bemused by three of his players picking this week to become embroiled in controversy over alleged late-night drinking sessions. Though he was angry, he did not show it yesterday.

He sees unity - in adversity as well as in triumph - as the only way to retain the trust and respect of his players and refuses to do anything that might endanger the team's chances of reaching Japan and South Korea.

So it was with his normal calm that he outlined how England can win at Old Trafford and why he sometimes feels it necessary to hide his feelings.

Eriksson said: 'It will be an emotional occasion and I get frustrated, glad, happy or angry - the same as a lot of people. It's just that I might not show it every time.

'I have a lot of emotions in both my private life and professional life and always have, even if I'm not jumping up to kiss half the team if they score. That's the way I am.'

It is also a winning way. His clinical approach has been the key to the five consecutive Group Nine wins which have put England on the brink of qualifying and David Beckham was in no doubt about how they have been achieved.

The captain said: 'It comes from the manager and the calmness he has, and it shows in the way we have been playing, in the patience we have shown in every game, even though we have been under a lot of pressure to get results. For a young team like this to achieve what we have has definitely come from him and his attitude.'

Against Greek opposition whose plan will be to spoil, frustrate and infuriate, Beckham and Co will today need to draw on their coach's ethos more than ever. Against Albania in Tirana and Greece in Athens, Eriksson's England showed a controlled ambition which was not rewarded with a lead until after a good hour in either game.

Victory was essential in both those matches. But anything less this afternoon would be the footballing equivalent of throwing themselves off of the mountain with the summit in sight.

A 1-0 win would be enough and the task of scoring has been handed to Emile Heskey and Robbie Fowler. Neither can claim to be in outstanding form and for a striker, not getting goals can lead to distraction.

Eriksson has yet to prepare his final team talk but he knew what theme would be at the heart of it.

He said: 'I will feel the atmosphere and look at the players to see if they are calm and concentrated, or whatever. You cannot prepare these things but I will talk about patience, that's for sure.

'That is the key word for this game - not trying to attack with eight players and then getting beaten by a counter-attack.

'All of the strikers have trained very well. Playing together at club level is perhaps as important as their form and fitness, but there are many things you have to consider and sometimes it's important to look in a player's eyes and try to see how his spirit is inside.'

And what did Eriksson see when he peered into the soul of his team?

'I can see they are very focused on the game and that no-one thinks it will be easy,' he said. 'We must have a lot of patience. We must not expect to score in the early minutes. It's 90 minutes of hard and difficult work and after 90 minutes we will win the game.'

England will not panic. That is not a word in Eriksson's vocabulary and even if 80 minutes elapse without a goal, he will studiously change the personnel and bring on Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham, but he will not change the system.

There will be no cavalry charge and the only emergency measure is an instruction to hold the ball in areas where Greece might concede free-kicks from which Beckham could score.

Eriksson said: 'We have hardly changed anything. Since the Spain game we have had more or less the same organisation and it's very easy for me because most of the players play in the same system for their clubs.'

Eriksson, who lost another player yesterday when likely substitute Nicky Butt failed to recover from a rib injury, warned against the prevailing notion that the match is a formality against a team who lost 5-1 to Finland last month.

'That is very dangerous,' he said. 'If you listen to people, many of them believe that we are already in the World Cup Finals. But we are not, absolutely.'

While Greece will sit back and allow England time on the ball, the threat of counter-attack is real. Panathinaikos striker Giorgios Karagounis has already punished Manchester United and Arsenal for poor defending in the past 12 months, and Rio Ferdinand and Martin Keown will have to be alert.

Still, the prospect of seeing this team compete on the biggest stage of all is enough to make even Eriksson excited.

He said: 'If we can qualify then we can play very well there. We have a young team who can improve a lot, and every time we have played they get better and better. In six or seven months we can improve even more and who knows?'