LONDON: Frank Lampard has stressed the importance of beating the Netherlands in a friendly today and believes it will give England the perfect confidence boost to reach the World Cup next summer.
England need just one more victory to reach the showpiece event in South Africa and can secure qualification by beating Croatia in their next World Cup qualifier at Wembley on Sept 9.
Despite the bad timing of the game against the Dutch, with the new Premier League season due to start just three days later, Lampard is relishing the chance to join up with his England teammates again and wants to maintain their winning feeling with a victory in Amsterdam.
Fabio Capello has managed to transform the team since his arrival back in 2008 and has a 100 percent record in the qualifying campaign with seven straight victories.
Capello is expected to name his strongest team available for today's match and Lampard says they are determined to put in another strong performance.
Lampard said: "We have to get ready for the big games that are coming next month. It will be ideal (to beat Croatia) and I am very confident we can do it.
"We know there are three games to go and will play as if it is our last game and we need to win it to go through.
"It is not ideal for us because Chelsea play Hull on Saturday lunchtime, but this is an important game for us and we have to focus. We should be fresh enough to deal with what comes.
"It will be great to have a good performance and a win as well to give us some confidence for the qualifying game. I remember being beaten by Denmark when we lost 4-1 and that was a horrible game.
"The Netherlands are a very strong team and have already qualified which says a lot about them. They are going into the tournament as one of the group favourites so it is very good for us to challenge ourselves against a good technical team." -- AFP