The FA's Chief Executive Mark Palios will also be in attendance, along with Trevor Brooking, Tord Grip, Ray Clemence, Les Reed and Brendon Batson.

Jose Luis Arnaut, the Assistant to the Portuguese Prime Minister, will host the evening and is due to be joined by Sports Minister Richard Caborn as well as Portuguese players based in England, with Tottenham's Helder Postiga among those scheduled to be present.

It will be an excellent opportunity for the two countries to strengthen further their warm relations ahead of EURO 2004 and, before that, England's friendly match away in the new Algarve Stadium on February 18.

A spokesman for the Embassy said: "Portugal warmly welcomes the participation of the England Team and the many fans expected to be at the Championship, which will provide an occasion to celebrate the long-standing links between the two countries."

Sven was equally looking forward to the event, telling us: "Portugal is a wonderful country with warm people who love their football, It will be very good to meet everyone tonight and we can all look forward to our game this month and the festival of football we can enjoy in the summer."

Sven-Goran Eriksson in Portugal

1982-84: SL Benfica
Portuguese League Champions 1983
Portuguese League Champions 1984
Portuguese Cup Winners 1983

1989-92: SL Benfica
Portuguese League Champions 1991


Portugal v England


TheFA.com is the home of the England team.

TheFA.com will reveal Sven's squad to face Portugal and David Platt's squad to face Holland this Saturday night.

The match against Portugal takes place on Wednesday 18 February, kick-off 9.15pm. It will be live on Sky Sports and Radio 5-Live.

You can read all the best build-up to the match here on TheFA.com.