England captain Steven Gerrard believes Brazil will provide a great test in Wednesday night’s friendly at Wembley and that a positive result will give a timely confidence boost ahead of the March World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro.
Gerrard, 32, will win his 101st cap against Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team and is excited about playing against some of the best players in the world.
“The FA have produced some fantastic fixtures for us this year and they are ones that whet the appetite as a player,” he told theFA.com.
“Brazil are fantastic opposition and it doesn’t matter that it is a friendly because we want to win and go into the qualifiers in March in fine form.”
And England manager Roy Hodgson revealed he will use the game to find his best eleven for the upcoming qualifiers.
He said: “This is another step along the way and a great way to start 2013 and our 150th anniversary.
“We will do our very best to play well and get a result so that come March we know what our best team is and what players play best together.
“If we can beat Brazil in the opening game and again in the Maracana in June and qualify for the finals then life is good for us.
“The only way to do that is by producing performances on the field. I get more and more confident the more I see these players that they have the ability to produce.”
Source: TheFA.com
