For 90 minutes in Slovakia tonight, Sven-Goran Eriksson could be considered to have found some welcome relief from the intensifying gossip over his personal life.

However, the England coach knows only too well from the fate of many of his predecessors that it is actually what transpires during that opening Euro 2004 qualifying tie, rather than around it, which really governs his future.

The real question is whether Gareth Southgate and Jonathan Woodgate can forge an impressive defensive partnership after the U-turn which sees the Leeds defender chosen ahead of Ugo Ehiogu.

It is whether a relatively conservative midfield of Paul Scholes - playing on the left - Nicky Butt, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham can provide the necessary inspiration and service.

And it is whether Emile Heskey can be a more productive strike partner for Michael Owen than Alan Smith looked against Portugal last month, as well as whether David Seaman repays the continued faith in him in goal.

Unless there are some in-depth revelations about comments which Eriksson supposedly made about his players, it is not over whom he chooses, however unwisely, to have an affair with.

Although Ulrika Jonsson's book - serialised from this weekend - dominated the agenda ahead of tomorrow's game, Eriksson insisted that the long debate over that issue was, however understandably, missing the real point.

After all, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan found to their cost just how harmful it could be to lose the opening game of a qualifying campaign.

While Hoddle partly paid the price for having lost the trust of his players with his World Cup diary and for making comments about the disabled, it is still almost always results which ultimately decide the fate of England coaches.