England v Switzerland - PREVIEW

England need cool heads

England captain David Beckham (R) goes for a header with French defender Bixente Lizarazu, 13 June 2004 during their opening match at the European Nations football championships at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. France and England are competing in Group B with Croatia and Switzerland.

David Beckham believes one of Sven-Goran Eriksson's greatest assets as a coach is the calming influence he has on his players.

But in the wake of a painful defeat at the hands of France, the sound of fists being thumped into palms and bold declarations of intent about making up for the frustration England suffered in the Stadium of Light have been ringing around England's base camp near Lisbon.

Listen to Steven Gerrard, whose mishit backpass led to France's winning penalty: "We can't afford to be down. It is a clean slate now and we need to go for the Swiss on Thursday."

Or to Beckham himself: "There's a lot of frustration from the game against the French and that will be taken out in the game on Thursday. As soon as that whistle goes, we will be at them.

Switzerland held out with ten men for the last 40 minutes to draw 0-0 with Croatia in their own opening match and with France still to play, the Swiss also know that victory over England could be their only realistic chance of making it to the quarter-finals.

Switzerland's forward Alexander Frei (R) vies with Croatia's defender Robert Kovac, 13 June 2004 at the Pessoa stadium in Leiria, during their Euro 2004 group B football match at the European Nations championship in Portugal. AFP PHOTO John MACDOUGALL

"We need to pull off something special," admitted their striker Alex Frei. "We will have to be very aggressive and willing to run ourselves into the ground."

French midfielder Claude Makelele (R) is tackled by England midfielder Paul Scholes, 13 June 2004 during their opening match at the European Nations football championships at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. France and England are competing in Group B with Croatia and Switzerland. AFP PHOTO PAUL BARKER

A 5pm kick-off means both sides will have to deal with temperatures that could still be above 30 degrees in Portugal's medieval capital.

The Swiss will be without PSV Eindhoven midfielder Johann Vogel following his sending-off against Croatia while England are hopeful Paul Scholes will recover from an ankle injury in time to line up in midfield.

If Scholes is fit, Eriksson is expected to make only one change to the line-up that started against France with John Terry, fit again after a hamstring strain, returning at centre-back at the expense of Ledley King.