England meet Iceland in the Euro 2016 last-16 tonight in a match they are expected to win, and manager Roy Hodgson cannot afford to lose if he is to earn a new contract.
Hodgson's team will play the smallest and lowest-ranked team remaining in the tournament in Nice, with hosts France waiting to meet the winners in a quarter-final in Paris on Sunday after they eliminated Ireland.
England will start as firm favourites despite not having won a tournament knock-out match for 10 years.
Defeat would rank as one of the greatest upsets, and humiliations, in recent English sporting history, and for Hodgson it would also in all probability end his four-year term as England manager.
His contract expires after this tournament and the Football Association have made it clear they will base their decision on England's performance in France.
Chief executive Martin Glenn offered Hodgson his support this weekend, but a second-round exit to a country with a population of just 330,000 would fall well short of expectations, and could make Hodgson's position untenable even with a dearth of obvious English replacements.
Hodgson appeared relaxed about his position at his pre-match press conference, and said his greater concern was for the players and fans.
"Every result is significant if you are a football coach, that is the nature of the game, but it is most significant for the football team and the country," he said.
"We desperately want to stay in the tournament... we'll be trying our very best to win because we want to stay in the tournament."
Hodgson is expected to undo many of the six changes he made for England's goalless draw against Slovakia, which meant England finished behind Wales and slipped into the tougher half of the draw.
Captain Wayne Rooney is expected to return to midfield, with the Tottenham's quartet of Dele Alli, full-backs Kyle Walker and Danny Rose and striker Harry Kane also in line to be recalled.
Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling is also reported to have been recalled after receiving heavy criticism for his displays in the opening two matches of the tournament.
Rooney accepted that he and his teammates would have to make their chances count against opponents who are likely to be organised but defensive in outlook.
"We appreciate the way they have played and they have our respect, but we will have to find out a way of breaking them down."
Since beating Ecuador in the second round of the 2006 World Cup, England have lost to Portugal on penalties in the same tournament, been trounced by Germany in the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup, and beaten by Italy, also on penalties, in the Euro 2012 quarter-final.
Hodgson's challenge against Iceland is to start reversing the decade of underachievement, knowing that failure might set a new low.
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