Eriksson: Patience the key

Sven Goran Eriksson is confident England can qualify

From BBC Sport Online chief football writer Phil McNulty in Athens.

Sven Goran Eriksson is convinced patience is the virtue that may yet guide England to automatic World Cup qualification.

Eriksson has preached patience as a key quality at international level - and saw England display it to record an impressive 2-0 win against Greece in Athens.

Second half goals from Paul Scholes and David Beckham gave Eriksson five wins out of five at the start of his reign, and a place in history as the first man in charge of England's football fortunes to achieve the feat.

Greece had quite a lot of the ball, but they didn't create very much

  Sven Goran Eriksson

England must now set their sights on beating Germany in Munich in September to avoid the lottery of the play offs ahead of next summer's World Cup.

And Eriksson said after the victory in Athens: "It is very important to be patient in football - especially in international football and especially away from home.

"These are very important games, and you must approach them in the right manner, which we hopefully have.

"You cannot start a game thinking you can chase the ball for 90 minutes, or play with a formation that means you are very high up the pitch.

"You can't give away too much space behind your defence because this is a very dangerous game to play.

"We played in the way we talked about in the build up to the game."

We were beaten by a better team, and we should not be ashamed about that

  Greece coach Vasilis Dannii

Greece coach Vasilis Danniil - who now faces the sack after he revealed an extension to his contract in December depended on World Cup qualification - was dignified in defeat.

He said: "We lost to a better team. People may ask how I am satisfied in defeat, but I am satisfied because we gave all the effort we could.

"We are disappointed that we lost but pleased with the effort. The England team prepared by Sven Goran Eriksson played very well.

"It was a difficult group to begin with, and unfortunately the predictions have proved correct. We will not be qualifying now, but England are a very good team."