England will go into the World Cup Qualifier against Montenegro Tuesday, knowing they need a win to stay in contention for top spot in Group H.
Montenegro currently lead the table by two points and will look to firm their grip on the group with a win over England in Podgorica.
"We respect and appreciate the English team, but even more so we appreciate our own qualities," Montenegro coach Branko Brnovic said. "I'm sure we'll make the most of them. I've read statements from some English players about the way the pitch will look.
"As far as I know, the English have always favoured long passes, so who should complain about this? Us, with (Mirko) Vucinic, (Stevan) Jovetic, (Marko) Basa, or England? They're also intimidated by our fans. All these stories are coming from their side. That shows they're more scared of this game than we are."
England captain Steven Gerrard, who will return to the starting lineup against Montenegro after being rested in the 8-0 win over San Marino, expects his side to come away with the desired result.
"We're taking big strides forward as a team," he said. "We've learned a lot from the Italy game in the Euros. There's still a lot of work to do but we will get there. We all spoke about keeping the ball better after that tournament, that we'd not been good enough in possession against Italy.
"We didn't have the ball for long periods that night and that's why they could mount attacks on our goal so often. At this level you've got to be better in possession and keep them away and our possession stats have improved a lot since then.
"But, to be honest, we won't be where we want to be with this manager in charge until we get to a major tournament and beat a top side, in the last eight. It's important we don't get ahead of ourselves and start thinking about Brazil.
"We've got to get there first. There are some big obstacles to get over first, starting with this game. The likes of me, Ashley (Cole), Frank (Lampard), Rio (Ferdinand), even Wayne (Rooney), who's getting on a bit now, all sense that time is moving on and we still want to achieve something with England."
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Expected lineups: Montenegro: M. Bozovic; V. Bozovic, Basa, Savic, Volkov; Kasalika, Drinic, Vukcevic, Zverotic; Vucinic, Jovetic.
England: Hart; Johnson, Smalling, Lescott, Cole; Gerrard, Cleverley; Milner, Rooney, Welbeck; Defoe.
Prediction: 2-1 to England
