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ENGLAND v SPAIN - GERRARD BANKING ON SPAIN GAME BOOST
Acting captain Steven Gerrard has called on England to send out a message of intent ahead of the vital Euro qualifier with Israel next month in Wednesday's friendly international with Spain at Old Trafford.
England's hopes of qualifying for the 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland are in the balance after the dismal goalless home draw with Macedonia and 2-0 defeat in Croatia.
Steve McClaren's side partially regained their pride with the draw against Holland in Amsterdam three months ago.
But Gerrard concedes England need maximum points from the qualifiers against Israel in Tel Aviv on March 25 and Andorra in Barcelona four days later and stressed the need to build confidence via the game with Spain.
The Liverpool midfielder, who will lead the side as John Terry is unlikely to start after his recent injury problems, said: "We've got to show the fans, the manager and everyone in the country that we really want to top this Euro group.
"We've got a really good challenge ahead because some of the past results in the qualifying group have not been what we would have liked.
"But The Spain game is good preparation for them. If we can get a good win, and a decent performance on Wednesday night, it will be good for confidence going into those qualifiers next month.
"We put in a pretty decent performance against Holland in the last friendly match but we are looking to improve on that on Wednesday.
"Is Israel a must win game? I think every game for England is 'must-win' but, with the group as it is, the next qualifiers coming up are must-win games."
Gerrard admits he has double reason for wanting England to win on Wednesday - to avenge a defeat by an infinitely superior Spain in Madrid in November 2004 and to avoid stick from his Liverpool team-mates Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina.
Gerrard, who was unavailable for that game, said: "Spain have got fantastic footballers, that's for sure. In the last game England played against them, Spain gave us a lesson in how to play football.
"They were very good technically that night and those memories are still with the players who played. It wasn't nice to watch back home and hopefully we can put in a lot better performance than the last time we played Spain.
"If you give people like Alonso and Fabregas time on the ball, you will be hurt. We need on Wednesday to get really close to them and give them the English style of football and try and rough them up a bit.
"I've got club team-mates I'm going to be coming up against so I don't want to be going back into work with Liverpool on Thursday morning having been beaten by them.
"It will really strange to play against Xabi. He is a terrific player and a great guy and it will be great to go into battle head to head.
"Usually he is alongside me and we are really close and have been playing quite well together. I don't think whoever loses will be looking forward to going into work on Thursday!"
By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.
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