Sven-Goran Eriksson has been regularly described as England's luckiest manager.
While many of his predecessors suffered the agony of penalty shoot-out exits at major tournaments, Eriksson has often seen things going England's way.
There was a dubious penalty against Argentina and a sympathetic sending-off against Brazil in the last World Cup.
Not to mention a final qualifier against Greece which, thanks to a barely warranted free-kick in the third minute of injury time, used up dollops of fortune in one fell swoop.
All that had been forgotten in the space of two minutes in Lisbon last Sunday when a 1-0 lead over France was painfully wiped away by two pieces of Zidane magic.
England's resilient performance over the holders that evening was cursed by by mistakes from Emile Heskey and Steven Gerrard cruelly punished by France's executioner-in-chief.
But England returned to the level of many of their least coherent performances again on Thursday despite a 3-0 victory over Switzerland.
Under the burning hot spotlight of the Coimbra sun, England were a stilted, ambling, misfiring unit for almost an hour.
On the other hand, the Swiss, largely seen as whipping-boys when Group B was drawn, made light of the suffocating heat despite coming from a country where snow is the prevalent weather condition.
Hakan Yakin continually zipped testing balls into England's box while England replied with a Wayne Rooney header totally against the run of play.
The lead did little to give England a platform to build on and the play swept more regularly towards David James until referee Valentin Ivanov provided a major boost with a red card for Swiss full-back Bernt Haas.
He probably received fewer sanctions for similar tackles playing for West Brom last season.
But the international stage is a harsher judge and Ivanov brandished a second yellow in his direction for a clumsy trip on Ashley Cole.
Chasing the game with 10 men is not the best scenario in 90 degree temperatures and the Swiss gradually melted away helped by a second Rooney goal that hit the post, bounced out and rebounded off the back of keeper Jorg Stiel and dribbled back into his net.
England now need just a draw with the improving Croats next week to qualify from the group.
But they need more verve and style to their play to get their hands on the trophy.
With Michael Owen anonymous again and marginal performances by David Beckham and Paul Scholes, only the energy of Gerrard and the spark of Rooney is carrying them forward at the moment.
An inability to control the flow of the game places too much dependence on an overworked defence.
Even the deadly double strike from Zidane came on the back of a French midfield domination that had forced England far too deep in the second half.
Eriksson may have to tinker with the formation once again before long or have to trust to luck one time too many.
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