We have been here before. Japan, England's opponents on Sunday in a friendly ahead of the World Cup, were also the choice of former coach Sven-Goran Eriksson in the build-up to Euro 2004.

This weekend's game will be in Austria, while Manchester City's Eastlands Stadium was the stage when they drew 1-1 almost exactly six years ago.

There will also be a different approach from England this time, with current coach Fabio Capello likely to involved several fringe players, while Eriksson sent out his first-choice team.

But some things don't change. Nine of the current World Cup squad featured in the friendly in Manchester and three others were unused substitutes.

Since then, the Japan squad has changed dramatically, but their performance six years ago proved they were an emerging football nation.

They have built on that hugely-encouraging draw against such a strong England side and will be at the Finals next month.

Michael Owen, one of the players who has faded from the international scene, put England in front six years ago, pouncing after keeper Seigo Narazaki failed to cling on to a shot from Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard's surging run through the midfield and Owen's typically alert finish encouraged England, who passed the ball stylishly in the opening half.

But this was a big occasion for Japan and they caused problems for an England team just days away from the Euro Finals.


David James was forced to produce two fine saves and Tsuneyasu Miyamoto wasted a glorious chance when he headed wide just before the break.

England survived when penalty appeals were turned down after Paul Scholes brought down Alex dos Santos, but Japan finally scored their deserved leveller after 52 minutes.

Alex was at the heart of a neat move that opened up a sluggish England defence before Shinji Ono poked the ball through the legs of James, who later saved well from Alex.

Twelve days later, England's first game in Euro 2004 in Portugal brought a 2-1 defeat against France.

They beat Switzerland and Croatia in their other games in Group B to qualify for the knock-out stages where they lost on penalties to the host country after a 2-2 draw.

This is how England and Japan lined up on June 1, 2004, in front of a crowd of 38,581:
England: James, Gary Neville (Phil Neville 85), Terry (King 88), Campbell, Ashley Cole, Scholes (Dyer 77), Beckham (Joe Cole 81), Gerrard (Hargreaves 82), Lampard (Butt 82), Owen (Vassell 77), Rooney (Heskey 77).
Subs not used: Bridge, Robinson, Carragher, Walker, Defoe.

Japan: Narazaki, Nakazawa, Miyamoto, Tsuboi, Santos, Ono, Inamoto (Fukunishi 90), Kaji, Nakamura, Tamada (Suzuki 60), Kubo (Yanagisawa 60).
Subs not used: Doi, Kawaguchi, Miura, Tanaka, Chano, Fujita, Ogasawara, Endo, Motoyama.