Brazil 2014: Gerrard – ‘it’s going to be tough’

The England squad are currently in Portugal for training ahead of the World Cup and will be returning to the St George’s Park ahead of their game against Peru at Wembley on Friday 30th May (8pm kick off).

The England team will then travel to Miami for 2 friendly warm-up games before their opening World Cup game on Saturday 14th June against Italy.

Gerrard interviewed on the FA website while in Portugal said:-

This is the important part, the preparation making sure you get into peak condition and try to find your form ready for that very important game against Italy.

We have to go there and give it our best shot, work hard – it’s going to be tough and that’s the message to everyone in the squad.

What’s important is we try to put on a good show in the three friendly matches and try to gain some early belief and confidence. Hopefully that has a snowball effect going into the tournament.

There is no bigger game for us to start against Italy, we go in as underdogs, of course, the Italians are a very experienced squad and have proved they are capable of going to the end.

We certainly don’t fear them, we respect them, but we feel we can go there create a shock in the first game which would be so big for this country.