So much for the net practice, so much for the count of Luxembourg. The overture against beginners having been completed, England today fly to Warsaw where on Wednesday their chances of qualifying for Euro 2000 will either be preserved or Pole-axed.

For the moment Kevin Keegan is entitled to feel confident about achieving the win against Poland which would ensure his team of a play-off place as group runners-up. The upbeat mood of Saturday's performance against Luxembourg at Wembley was as important as England's easy 6-0 victory.

In football terms, Poland are hardly Brobdingnagian compared to Luxembourg's Lilliput, but Wednesday's game will be the nearest Group Five gets to a cup final and, as we know, in cup finals anything can happen. It can be assumed, moreover, that Janusz Wojcik's reorganised Polish side will make a better fist of this match than the team which lost 3-1 at Wembley in March in Keegan's first game.

England, therefore, will need to reproduce the quick, accurate, incisive passing and movement which distinguished their football in the first half when Alan Shearer's first hat-trick for his country and Steve McManaman's first two goals in internationals reduced the rest of the game to a training session until Michael Owen, who had come on as a substitute, added a personal postscript with a shot of typical precocity.

A sense of perspective is important here. Luxembourg were the worst international team to visit Wembley since . . . well, since Luxembourg visited Wembley in 1982 when England won a European Championship qualifier 9-0 with Luther Blissett scoring three goals and missing another six.

This was just the fillip Keegan's players needed after the doleful draws against Sweden and Bulgaria which had placed their hopes of qualification in jeopardy.

As it is, a draw in Warsaw would still leave them in an agony of suspense. In this situation Poland could pip England for second place by avoiding defeat in Sweden on October 9th, and by then, assuming they win the group in Luxembourg on Wednesday, the Swedes will have nothing to play for except pride.

Keegan, then, has to go for victory in Warsaw. He dare not contemplate an alternative. A number of individual performances on Saturday will weigh heavily in his thoughts as he contemplates the shape and substance of the team he will be fielding in little Legia Stadium.

Most of the positions will be merely a matter of confirmation, even if Keegan learned little on Saturday about his present defence apart from the fact that, at 37, Stuart Pearce can still tackle like a ram raider. Alan Shearer wasted little time reminding the nation that if he receives the proper service he can still be England's most reliable goalscorer. Robbie Fowler looked his natural foil, especially in the first half.

Kieron Dyer's 45-minute introduction to full internationals was breathtaking, most of it taken from the Luxembourg defence. The 20-year-old Ipswich product, now with Newcastle, was given the run of the right flank and did so to such good effect that, provided a tightened calf muscle eases, he will start against Poland.

After the game a fan who rang in to Richard Littlejohn's 606 programme on BBC Radio 5 Live could not for the life of him understand what David Batty was doing in the England team. You envied the bliss of the caller's ignorance. Over 90 minutes Batty was England's best player.

Batty went into the game to occupy a holding role in midfield but increasingly found himself moving ahead of David Beckham. The latter's passing and occasional crosses were immaculate, but he left Wembley with a hamstring injury which makes him England's principal doubt for Wednesday night now that Jamie Redknapp has been ruled out with an Achilles problem.

England: Martyn, Dyer (G Neville 46), Keown, Adams (P Neville 65), Pearce, McManaman, Beckham (Owen 65), Batty, Parlour, Shearer, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Walker, Southgate, Sherwood, Sheringham. Booked: Pearce. Goals: Shearer 12 pen, 28, McManaman 30, Shearer 34, McManaman 44, Owen 90.

Luxembourg: Felgen, Feron, Schauls, Birsens, Funck, Saibene, Theis, Vanek, Christophe (Zaritski 63), Schnieder (Alverdi 46), Posing (F Deville 83). Subs Not Used: Besic, L Deville, Schaack, Thill. Booked: Funck.

Referee: S Shmolik (Belarus).