It is the sort of night Wembley was built for.
The $2billion joint will be jumping, the tension unbearable, the support passionate.
And at a shade before 9am tomorrow Steve McClaren will either be the luckiest man in England and on his way to Euro 2008 or the nation which gave football to the world will be in need of a new manager and a fresh direction.
It is always like that in English football.
The serious sniper fire is reserved almost exclusively for the manager while the players slink off to their Ferraris to speed away from blame and await the call for another campaign.
Not that it is easy to make a case for McClaren, whose record before Israel came charging to his rescue with that win against Russia hovered considerably south of ordinary after leaking 10 points in 11 qualifying matches.
If it was less than adequate then, would one more point against Croatia make him a better international manager? Hardly.
But while McClaren's fate has filled the air waves, prompted national opinion polls and filled enough column inches to stretch half-way to the moon tomorrow's match is really about the players.
If ever there was a match for them to listen to Steven Gerrard's appeal this week to "take the responsibility" then it is this one.
And if Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Peter Crouch and the rest need an example to follow then they only have to look at the players who have got them where they are right now.
That would be the patriotic, committed individuals of Israel who confounded the conspiracy theories and, with nothing bar pride at stake, produced a performance against Russia which restored faith in the honour of football.
It would include the men from Macedonia, down there with the whipping boys of Group E, but whose 2-0 victory against Croatia again proved what can be achieved when adrenalin pumps inside a national shirt.
If Israel and Macedonia can muster such winning energy then what is stopping the hugely rewarded players from the most powerful league in the world from doing the same?
It is something McClaren's men should ponder in their Wembley dressing room before giving what Gerrard said must be "the performance of our lives".
Yes, I know England are without Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen in attack and John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in defence, perhaps the four most important contributors after Gerrard to England's cause.
The void left has highlighted the serious deficiency in depth within England football, sparking debate over foreign imports and the need for quotas.
But surely England should still have enough, especially when they could call on a five-man midfield containing Gerrard, Lampard, David Beckham, Joe Cole and Gareth Barry or Owen Hargreaves.
Surely passion and pride, voracious work ethic and those most crucial commodities for a footballer, confidence and conviction, should be supplied by the historic nature of an occasion which, one way or the other, is bound to live long in the memories of football fans.
That leaves managerial nous. And that brings us back to McClaren whose instinct to "go for a win," rather than settle for the point required, cannot be faulted.
One of McClaren's more irritating traits is that his press conference sound bites often come across like celebrity chef dishes in that they appear to have been prepared earlier.
On the eve of the 90 minutes which will determine his football future they came thick and fast.
"We've got to make sure we finish off." "You end up where you deserve to be." "When we play as a team we can beat anybody." "The players have to go out and prove that we deserve to qualify."
Heard them before, but no arguments with that lot this time.
The problem, however, is to ensure that England do not start with such good intentions only to surrender the initiative as the match progresses, which has been a recurring theme of McClaren's reign including last Friday's 1-0 victory against hapless Austria.
If they can do that my hunch is that Wembley will start to repay its huge debt, the atmosphere propelling England to a 2-0 victory to leave McClaren at the summit of Group E.
All England would take that. Convincing anyone that McClaren's side had ended up where they "deserved to be" might prove more difficult.
SYDNEY BASED ENGLAND FANS – can catch all the live action from Wembley to see if England can secure qualification to Euro 2008 at Star City tomorrow morning on their huge screen in Trophies bar…kick off is 7am
And at a shade before 9am tomorrow Steve McClaren will either be the luckiest man in England and on his way to Euro 2008 or the nation which gave football to the world will be in need of a new manager and a fresh direction.
It is always like that in English football.
The serious sniper fire is reserved almost exclusively for the manager while the players slink off to their Ferraris to speed away from blame and await the call for another campaign.
Not that it is easy to make a case for McClaren, whose record before Israel came charging to his rescue with that win against Russia hovered considerably south of ordinary after leaking 10 points in 11 qualifying matches.
If it was less than adequate then, would one more point against Croatia make him a better international manager? Hardly.
But while McClaren's fate has filled the air waves, prompted national opinion polls and filled enough column inches to stretch half-way to the moon tomorrow's match is really about the players.
If ever there was a match for them to listen to Steven Gerrard's appeal this week to "take the responsibility" then it is this one.
And if Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Peter Crouch and the rest need an example to follow then they only have to look at the players who have got them where they are right now.
That would be the patriotic, committed individuals of Israel who confounded the conspiracy theories and, with nothing bar pride at stake, produced a performance against Russia which restored faith in the honour of football.
It would include the men from Macedonia, down there with the whipping boys of Group E, but whose 2-0 victory against Croatia again proved what can be achieved when adrenalin pumps inside a national shirt.
If Israel and Macedonia can muster such winning energy then what is stopping the hugely rewarded players from the most powerful league in the world from doing the same?
It is something McClaren's men should ponder in their Wembley dressing room before giving what Gerrard said must be "the performance of our lives".
Yes, I know England are without Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen in attack and John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in defence, perhaps the four most important contributors after Gerrard to England's cause.
The void left has highlighted the serious deficiency in depth within England football, sparking debate over foreign imports and the need for quotas.
But surely England should still have enough, especially when they could call on a five-man midfield containing Gerrard, Lampard, David Beckham, Joe Cole and Gareth Barry or Owen Hargreaves.
Surely passion and pride, voracious work ethic and those most crucial commodities for a footballer, confidence and conviction, should be supplied by the historic nature of an occasion which, one way or the other, is bound to live long in the memories of football fans.
That leaves managerial nous. And that brings us back to McClaren whose instinct to "go for a win," rather than settle for the point required, cannot be faulted.
One of McClaren's more irritating traits is that his press conference sound bites often come across like celebrity chef dishes in that they appear to have been prepared earlier.
On the eve of the 90 minutes which will determine his football future they came thick and fast.
"We've got to make sure we finish off." "You end up where you deserve to be." "When we play as a team we can beat anybody." "The players have to go out and prove that we deserve to qualify."
Heard them before, but no arguments with that lot this time.
The problem, however, is to ensure that England do not start with such good intentions only to surrender the initiative as the match progresses, which has been a recurring theme of McClaren's reign including last Friday's 1-0 victory against hapless Austria.
If they can do that my hunch is that Wembley will start to repay its huge debt, the atmosphere propelling England to a 2-0 victory to leave McClaren at the summit of Group E.
All England would take that. Convincing anyone that McClaren's side had ended up where they "deserved to be" might prove more difficult.
SYDNEY BASED ENGLAND FANS – can catch all the live action from Wembley to see if England can secure qualification to Euro 2008 at Star City tomorrow morning on their huge screen in Trophies bar…kick off is 7am
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