Brazil will be the acid test for England, says Crouch

Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009 21:22

PETER Crouch cannot wait to find out how much ground England have to make up on five-times World Cup winners Brazil.

Fabio Capello's team tackle the Confederations Cup winners in the Nationwide Challenge Match in Qatar on Saturday in what will be their penultimate game before the Italian must pick a provisional squad for South Africa 2010.

It sees Brazil joining a list of hand-picked friendly opponents that includes France, Germany, Spain and Holland which Capello feels have offered the perfect answers to so many of the questions that will be posed at the World Cup.

And Crouch, who will hope to maintain a remarkable goal-scoring record of 16 in 17 internationals he has started if he gets the nod to partner Wayne Rooney, is eager to see what developments have been made.

"If we are going to have any aspirations of winning the World Cup we need to play the best," he said.

"We have to find out about their strengths and weaknesses and see how close we are to them.

"It is all about preparing for the World Cup. If we lose, we have time to adapt and see where we went wrong. But the basic point is to test ourselves against the top nations – and Brazil are one of those."

Crouch has faced the most glamorous opposition of all once before, coming on as a substitute in 2007 when Brazil swaggered into London to open the new Wembley and battled their way to a creditable draw.

"Ronaldo was a great hero of mine. He still is," said the Tottenham striker. "I used to love watching him.

"Even as a professional, I admit there is something special about playing for Brazil.

"We all grew up watching the great Brazil teams and all those great flair players. It is a great fixture. They are a fantastic team, full of world-class players."