Crouch eager for England to pass Brazil exam

England striker Peter Crouch believes this week’s friendly against five-time World Cup winners Brazil will provide a true test of the team’s progress under Italian manager Fabio Capello.

Saturday’s fixture against the Confederations Cup winners will be England’s penultimate game before Capello must pick a provisional squad for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

And giant Tottenham striker Crouch, who has scored 16 goals in 17 internationals, cannot wait to go up against Brazil.

“If we are going to have any aspirations of winning the World Cup we need to play the best,” he said after training here on Tuesday.

“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.”

And Crouch said that even now, as a seasoned forward, a match against the South Americans was one to cherish.

“Even as a professional, I admit there is something special about playing for Brazil,” he said. “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.”

Capello has brought a harder edge to England’s preparations and will certainly not stand for the distracting media circus that surrounded players’ wives and girlfriends at the 2006 finals in Germany.

However, avoiding British tabloid press photographers is not always straightforward as Crouch discovered last month when at a London nightclub with Tottenham team-mate Jonathan Woodgate.

“You’ve got to be wary of that,” he said. “Of course, we all want to keep our heads down and do as well as we can.

“There are times when you can’t. We?re all human at the end of the day, but it’s difficult keeping your head down at 6ft 7in.”