Eriksson held a team meeting with his players at the England hotel this afternoon and he believes the atmosphere in the camp could not be better.

He has almost a clean bill of health going to the quarter-final in Lisbon, with only Nicky Butt unavailable for selection because of a knee injury. And the Three Lions believe they are good enough beat the hosts.

Eriksson said: "The belief amongs the players is very, very big. They are confident. They know it is difficult to beat us and the confidence is very high.

"It's good to be in the quarter-final and we deserve to be here. It will be an extremely good atmosphere against Portugal I'm sure. And we want to win."

England have had only two days to get ready for what is the biggest game since the Three Lions faced Brazil in the quarter-finals of the World Cup two years ago. But it seems all the aches and pains are disappearing just in time.

Eriksson said: "It's short preparation and wether it is enough I will tell you tomorrow evening.

"But the physio, doctor and masseur have been good and we have been making sure the players eat well and do a lot of stretching and have ice baths and things like that.

"I hope and am quite sure we have done everything possible.

"We know it won't be easy against Portugal because they are a good team and it is an advantage for them to play at home.

"But I think at 7.45pm tomorrow it will be like playing at home for us because of the English fans and the players are looking forward to it."

Eriksson has had time to assess England's progress in the tournament so far and after watching videos of the matches he is happy with the performances.

He said: "We played good football against France and Croatia, we played okay against Switzerland but we won it so I'm quite happy with what we have done so far.

"The only thing I hope we will do better is defending on set pieces because there were two wide free kicks and two goals against us in the Croatia game. We will try to do it better against Portugal because they have players with good delivery.

"But overall, I'm happy so far. We're in quarter-finals and with a bit of luck we could have had nine points in our group.

"I am happy with our squad as well of course and Rooney has been amazing.

"He is 18 but on the pitch he behaves like he is 28. He doesn't worry about anything and he is very calm.

"He plays like he has a lot of experience and so hopefully he will be even better in the future - but even if he stays at this level I'm happy!"

Eriksson is well aware of the growing hype surrounding Rooney's every move, and the comparisons being made between the England teenager and world legend Pele.

It was the England Head Coach's quotes in a post-match press conference that sparked the comparison, although he believes his comments were taken rather out of context.

He said: "I was asked if I remembered anyone so young making the same kind of impact in a finals since Pele in 1958, and I said no. If that was to make Wayne the same as Pele, I don't know. I think Wayne has to score some more goals to say that, but maybe you can say he is like Pele at that age.

"Anway, I don't think these things affect him and I haven' t spoken to him a lot about the hype around him because I don't see any signs that it is needed.

"He seems very happy on the pitch and very happy off the pitch, being together with the other players and laughing and not worrying about anything.

"After the tournament maybe life will be more difficult for him than where he is now. But he's lucky in that he has good agent, good friends and good managers. I'm sure that David Moyes is looking after him in an excellent way.

"But while we are here there are no problems. I'm sure Rooney will play well again against Portugal but to expect him to score a couple of goals every game is asking too much. I hope he will go on scoring but if he scores once or none you have to accept that as well.

"The important thing is that all the players are ready. If we play the football we can play then it is not easy to beat us. So why should we not, along with a couple of other teams, be one of the favourites?"