On the evidence of their lacklustre display in a 1-1 draw with Japan here on Tuesday the rendezvous with Thierry Henry and co. will be anticipated by England with the kind of enthusiasm normally reserved for dental appointments.

But Eriksson, who has never been one to set much store by friendly performances, remained defiantly confident that everything will be all right on the night in the Stadium of Light.

"I think we played excellent football for 30, 35 minutes. I have not seen my team playing attacking football like that in a long time," he said.

England's positive opening yielded a Michael Owen goal mid-way through the first half.

But that was cancelled out by Shinji Ono eight minutes after the break and, with a few more breaks and a little better finishing, Japan might easily have claimed a memorable victory.

"We got a little tired, especially in the second half but I think that is normal. We had a hard session yesterday and we practised rather long this morning," said Eriksson.

"Of course the reason we practised is because we want to be as fit as possible (for the Euro 2004 match against France) on the 13th of June.

"I'm sure then we will be much better physically than we were today."

In reality England's shortcomings were as much tactical as they were physical. Eriksson's experiment with Frank Lampard playing in the holding midfield role normally occupied by Nicky Butt proving distinctly unsuccessful.

England have a final chance to get their preparations for France back on track when they face Iceland here on Saturday.

England captain David Beckh-am, who emerged from the dressing room with his ankle in ice, said, "I cut my ankle a few weeks ago and got an infection in it so I've been taking it easy and I hardly trained last week."

"I don't think there should be any long term problems but I will just have to be very careful."

Japan coach Zico rejected suggestions that his team had been flattered by a below-par England performance.

"We should not take anything away from Japan. The fact that we were able to create so much space and so many chances was created by the imagination and movement of Japan," the former Brazilian midfielder said.

"Our defence neutralised the threat posed by Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney and I think that was one of the reasons we were able to play so well.

"This will have given us a lot of confidence going into our World Cup qualifier against India. I'm sure we will have a good match and get the three points."

Japan were under pressure from the start and it took a goal-line clearance from captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto to deny Terry his first England goal from a Beckham corner.

England's early pressure paid off in the 22nd minute when goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki spilled Steven Gerrard's long-range drive into the path of Owen, who duly tucked away his 25th England goal.

Japan should have equalised in the 33rd minute when Nakamura's inswinging corner found Miyamoto unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box only for the central defender to steer his effort wide of the upright.

Only a last-ditch tackle from Ashley Cole denied Tamada and Japan might have had a penalty just before the break when the Brazilian-born midfielder Alex waltzed past Terry on the left of the England area and appeared to be brought down by Scholes's tackle from behind.

The equaliser finally came eight minutes after the interval. Nakam-ura's neat pass released Alex into space on the left of the England box from where he picked out Ono, whose side-footed shot slid through Terry's legs and past an unsighted James.

And it was Japan who went closest to claiming a winner.

Nakamura had the ball taken off his toes on the 18-yard line by Gary Neville's well-judged tackle and then saw a crisp drive deflected narrowly wide by Terry.

The final scare for England came when James spilled a shot from Alex but, as in the first half, Japan's forwards failed to follow-up. Henry and David Trezeguet are unlikely to be so generous.