England are not frightened of facing Brazil in Friday's World Cup quarter-final - in fact they are confident of dumping the four times champions out of the finals, says captain David Beckham.
Beckham and his team mates watched Brazil's patchy 2-0 win over Belgium in the second round on Monday and came away convinced they could punish a hesitant South American defence.
"Of course they're beatable," Beckham told reporters at England's Awaji Island training ground on Tuesday.
"We went down there to watch because they are Brazil, but also to see what sort of team they are and, to be fair, Belgium caused them a few problems -- which was good.
"We're not too worried about playing against them.
"I think that's the confidence we've got to have because if we are worried about playing Brazil, we're 1-0 down before the game's even started.
"We've got to go out there believing that we can beat them."
SCORING CHANCES
Adding the potential of England strikers Michael Owen and Emile Heskey to the scoring chances that came Belgium's way, Beckham said: "If we can carry on defending well and break off them and play balls through, we've got two quick lads up front."
Fellow midfielder Nicky Butt said Brazil's attack would hold few surprises despite the skills of Ronaldo and Rivaldo, who have both scored in every game so far.
"We've seen them in the European Cup and we've seen them again against Belgium, so the ability they've got going forward is not going to be a shock to us," he said.
"But equally, we're as good going forward and we can score goals.
"Belgium had plenty of chances to score -- they could have had three or four goals in my opinion but they failed to put them away."
NO INTIMIDATION
Butt, like Beckham, is convinced that self-belief, along with an England defence that has conceded only one goal so far in four matches, will be the key to victory at Shizuoka.
"It's a case of getting back and supporting the defence -- and not being afraid of the big name players in the Brazil side," he said.
"It's about going out there, having belief in yourself and stopping them scoring.
"The name Brazil might be enough to scare some people, but we've got to go out there and not be intimidated."
Summing up the mood in a buoyant England camp after a 1-0 group win over pre-tournament favourites Argentina and a 3-0 demolition of Denmark, striker Robbie Fowler said: "It's happened in the past that teams have played Brazil and been scared of them.
"Obviously we can't afford to do that.
"We have to put the onus on them and hopefully, after what we've achieved in the tournament, they will be a little bit scared of us."
