England, and in particular their manager Steve McClaren, face a

make or break test against Estonia in Tallinn on Wednesday.

Victories for their three main

Euro 2008 qualification rivals on Saturday left England fourth in group E and trailing leaders Croatia by five points.

Worse still, Israel and Russia are both three points ahead of one of the continent's traditionally strong teams - and England have looked anything but that during this qualification campaign.

With their three rivals also playing on Wednesday, England are desperate for three points from their trip to thus far winless, pointless and goalless Estonia.

Anything else would almost certainly signal the end of McClaren's year in the England hot-seat, and quite probably England's hopes of making the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland next year.

So desperate is England, and McClaren's, situation that the manager was forced to go back on his decision to drop David Beckham from his thinking since the end of last year's World Cup.

Beckham has been inspirational for Real Madrid in the second half of the season as the Spanish giants have bounced back into their domestic title race.

The LA Galaxy-bound midfielder was one of England's star performers in Friday's friendly 1-1 draw with Brazil and is expected to play a pivotal role in Estonia.

"Beckham did very well against Brazil," said midfielder Frank Lampard.

"He has always got that killer ball he can put into the danger area from free-kicks which can make a goal. There was also a nice balance across the midfield. He was very disciplined on the right and was supplying good balls."

McClaren seems likely to leave the midfield untouched, with Lampard and Steven Gerrard together in the middle, flanked by Beckham and Joe Cole, but he hinted their could be a change up front, with Peter Crouch replacing Alan Smith as a partner for Michael Owen.

"I said before the Brazil game that that wasn't necessarily the team for Estonia," McClaren said. "We'll have to look at certain things and digest it and maybe it will be different."

Should England win their qualification hopes could look a lot rosier come Thursday morning as Croatia and Russia play each other in Zagreb.

Points dropped by any rivals would be welcome news for McClaren.

He is not the only manager under fire, though, as Italy's Roberto Donadoni has come in for harsh criticism despite wining his last game.

His world champions beat plucky Faroe Islands only 2-1 in Rome on Saturday and they have been forced to defend their abject performance ever since.

A tricky tie away to Lithuania in Kaunas will not help settle their nerves either.

"The bad weather did not help, but we were very poor," said Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, whose late save denied the Islanders what would have been an historic draw.

"Whenever we play weaker teams, we lose our concentration. But maybe this will give us a wakeup call for the Lithuania match."

Italy have won four straight in group B after a desperate opening to their campaign and now sit second only to France.

France coach Raymond Domenech is determined not to let his side fall into the same trap as Italy as they host Georgia in Paris.

And he is particularly worried about players trying to sort out their club futures rather than concentrating on international duty.