Turkey - 0 England - 0 In commemoration of a fine night for England, Sven-Goran Eriksson presented the nation with a straight answer.
He will definitely be in charge when the team goes to Portugal next summer.
The coach, whose contract runs until 2006, loves to cloak his intentions and it took a while to persuade him to forego opaque generalisations. "Don't you understand me?" he said lightly, as the inquiries continued. "Is it bad English? Yes, I will be manager at the European Championships."
Only a few days ago the public might not have much cared if he had replied in the negative, such was the disillusionment with England's affairs after the squad uprising.
The scruples and judgment of his players can still be questioned but no one should doubt the calibre of the team.
Although Eriksson loosely bundled Saturday's match with memorable occasions against Germany, Argentina, Greece and even Denmark, there was a distinctive character to the performance. With little fuss Eriksson's side showed an enterprise and organisation that soon had their opponents and the crowd feeling sheepish for ever supposing they could win. If Turkey, who have never beaten England, did not start the night with an inferiority complex it was soon implanted in them.
Senol Gunes's team never recovered from the opening period in which England outclassed them in midfield and spread panic in their back four. Although Turkey had a superficial verve just after the interval it was their players who looked as if they were counting the minutes to the full-time whistle, aching for an end to this failure.
There were only very occasional scuffles in the England penalty area, where Sol Campbell's power and precision of challenge set a standard that John Terry, beside him, very nearly equalled. The balanced scoreline implied tension but Eriksson's men actually sauntered through to Euro 2004.
"Turkey created more chances at Sunderland," said the goalkeeper David James. "It was the best defensive display I have played behind for club or country. I could enjoy it."
It was unkind of England to torment Turkey with the thought that they were just a single breakthrough from triumph.
The hosts were incapable of that. Hakan Sukur's dive inside the penalty area was as inexpert as his work in the forward line and that piece of cheating was proof of a team's despair.
If England are to be criticised it is purely for the want of sharpness when Wayne Rooney, twice, and Paul Scholes ought to have scored. David Beckham appeared even more of a wastrel. After Tugay Kerimoglu had brought down Steven Gerrard in the 37th minute, the captain sent the penalty steepling far above the bar.
It was his standing foot, rather than his nerve, that let him down, as he slipped at the crucial moment. Concerns about his temperament will be restricted to the way in which he reacted to Alpay Ozalan's provocation after the penalty and in the clash that sparked the half-time melee.
On the field England's obvious flaw lay in the lack of a true replacement for the absent Michael Owen, but this was no night for woe-bearers. There are just a few teams in the world who can come to Istanbul and impose their will as firmly as England did to make Turkey's third place at the 2002 World Cup look like a freak of a benevolent draw.
There are questions to be asked of any side and the excellent Terry, for example, will have to face more subtle interrogations than that provided by the barging Sukur. None the less there should be an appreciation that Eriksson has pieced together a side of refinement.
The Swede has now won 13 and drawn five of his 19 fixtures in major tournaments. Brazil proved his nemesis for the solitary loss but there cannot be a side in Europe who could take a victory over England for granted.
Eriksson was absolutely justified in his tactful bragging. "I can't say we will win (Euro 2004) but we're good enough to win it," he said. "We're one of a few teams that have the ability. In a real game it's not that easy to beat England any more. We have a very good team when we have very few injured players. If you're talking France, Italy and Germany, they're good as well. That's a problem for us."
Gerrard was even more optimistic and an able squad has good reason to be exasperated by the assumption that honours must always be reserved for others. Eriksson has fostered the environment in which hope flourishes. His reserved manner can make him look detached from events but it is in his quiet command of detail that his authority lies.
Rooney and Emile Heskey were cleverly replaced by the free-running Kieron Dyer and Darius Vassell, with tiring Turkey obliged to sit deeper to deny the new pairing space. The effect was to leave Gunes's team poorly positioned to launch a late onslaught.
Eriksson might now enjoy some tranquility as his reward for acumen in Istanbul. With no play-offs, the coach can return to wearing out the batteries in the substitutes' board in friendlies.
TURKEY: Rustu, Uzulmez, Korkmaz, Akyel, Alpay, Emre (Penbe 79), Buruk (Mansiz 68), Tugay, Sukur, Nihat, Yalcin (Sanli 61). Subs Not Used: Catkic, Basturk, Asik, Davala. Booked: Tugay.
ENGLAND: James, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Campbell, Terry, Butt, Gerrard, Beckham, Scholes (Lampard 90), Rooney (Dyer 73), Heskey (Vassell 69). Subs Not Used: Robinson, Phil Neville, Upson, Bridge. Booked: Butt.
Referee: Pierluigi Collina (Italy).
