BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is urging his men not to underestimate the smaller teams when they open their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign against Slovakia on Saturday.

Either England or World Cup semi-finalists Turkey are expected to top Group 7, also containing Macedonia, who Eriksson's men host next Wednesday, and Liechtenstein.

But the Swede suspects the automatic qualification place may be won and lost not in the matches between England and Turkey, but in how the favourites cope with games like Saturday's in Bratislava.

'On paper, Turkey and England are the favourites to win and be second,' the Swede told a news conference on Friday.

'It might be that one point lost here and there decides who wins the group.

'I said to the players yesterday, it's like a group in the Champions League -- only you have two more games here.

'If you fail in one or two games, the risk of going out is extremely big. So every game is very, very important.'

Though the Slovaks are going into Saturday's clash after opening their campaign with a 3-0 defeat to the Turks in Istanbul last month, Eriksson was keen to play up the challenge facing his side.

'Slovakia are an organised team...Turkey had difficulties breaking them down in Turkey,' he said. 'I don't expect an easy evening tomorrow at all -- I expect a very difficult one.'

PITCH PROBLEM

England's task will not be helped by a pitch, used by Slovak club side Slovan Bratislava, in far from ideal condition and which also soaked up a near-continuous drizzle on Friday.

With the risk of further rain on match day, the return to fitness of Michael Owen, David Beckham and Steven Gerrard is likely to come on a surface least suited to their ball skills.

'The pitch could be better but you can't do very much about that, so we have no complaints or excuses about that,' said Eriksson, who has nevertheless asked for the grass to be cut.

'Of course, it's a pity when we have all our best footballers, in the sense of players who can play the ball quickly, that we don't have a pitch. If it keeps on raining, it's not going to be easy to move the ball very quickly on the ground.

'But that's football. If you are a good team, you have to win if it's snowing, raining or if the pitch is bad.'

The fitness of Owen and Beckham, who were both carrying injuries at the World Cup, along with Gerrard, who missed the tournament altogether due to surgery, will be crucial to England's qualifying chances in the months ahead.

As they start their bid to reach the 2004 finals in Portugal, Eriksson seems convinced that fitness -- in the sense of staying injury-free and being rested -- will play an important part.

Looking back to a bitter-sweet World Cup which ended with a quarter-final defeat to Brazil, Eriksson said: 'In the second half (of matches) we didn't have that flair and energy which we all wanted to see -- the players as well.

'The main reason was that unfortunately we were tired in every second half.'