Eriksson delighted with perfect start

Paul Scholes slides home England's opener

BBC Sport Online's chief football writer Phil McNulty finds England coach Sven Goran Eriksson in buoyant mood after the win in Greece.

England coach Sven Goran Eriksson made history in Athens - then set his sights on automatic World Cup qualification after an impressive 2-0 victory against Greece.

Eriksson made it five wins out of five at the start of his reign, after second-half goals from Manchester United pair Paul Scholes and David Beckham left the Swede in buoyant mood.

David Beckham is playing good football and scoring lots of goals

  Sven Goran Eriksson

He is the first England coach to achieve the feat and he said: "It was a very good way to finish the season - and means everything is now possible in our group.

"We played very well and deserved our win.

"We played with a lot of patience and waited for our opportunities.

"We will now see what happens after the players have a well-deserved holiday, but it is all possible and we now look forward to the game against Germany in September."

Eriksson was delighted for captain David Beckham, who scored his third England goal in four games to leave the Swede still harbouring hopes of finishing top of Group Nine.

Eriksson discusses tactics with assistant Tord Grip

He said: "I am very happy with David. He is behaving like a true captain. He is playing good football and scoring lots of goals.

"I did not realise he had been criticised for not scoring enough goals for England before I arrived. I have to say I have no complaints.

"It is wonderful for me to get five wins right away, and three of those have been very important World Cup victories.

"I am very proud and very happy with the performance of my players. They were very patient and mature, which you have to be in international football.

"Greece played well - but we played better."