Owen is still waiting for his first goal of the tournament and has been overshadowed so far by his young strike partner Wayne Rooney.

But the Liverpool striker looked back to his best in the stunning 4-2 victory over Croatia, setting up Rooney for his second goal with a superb through-ball and producing a lively all-round performance.

Now he wants to step up another gear against Portugal on Thursday and finish the tournament on a high.

He said: "It's great to see Wayne scoring all these goals. But I want to score goals as well and if we can both click at the same time I think it will be very good for England.

"He's carrying us forward so far but I still think I've got a big part to play in the tournament. I've not got anything to prove, I know I can score goals at this level because I've scored in three big tournaments before.

"It's not as if I am doubting myself. But hopefully there's three massive games to come for us and I want to be on the scoresheet in every single one of them.

"I think I'm getting sharper every game and I feel good. I started off slow against France but I didn't play badly and I'm not giving balls away or missing big chances, but I admit I've not done much.

"But there was an improvement in the second game and again against Croatia. Obviously the next step is to score a goal and I'm determined to do that against Portugal."

There is no doubt that Owen has added a lot to his game since he made such an impact as an 18-year-old in the World Cup finals of 1998. But in the end it is goals that drive him on - and nobody expects him to go much longer without hitting the net.

He said: "It does bother me when I don't score. There's always something missing for me if you win a game and don't score, and if you don't feel like that then you'll never reach the top.

"I've not scored again against Croatia and although part of me is ecstatic that we're through there's another five per cent in the back of my mind saying I want to score.

"I like to have the responsibility of scoring goals, that's the truth. But it's not like I've been missing chances or anything like that. I had one decent chance against Croatia and just chipped it over the bar but apart from that my all round game is improving. And the bigger the game hopefully the better I'll get."

That's bad news for Portugal because with four-goal Wayne Rooney already on a high and midfielders Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard already off the mark it seems there are goals galore in this England team.

No wonder Owen believes the Three Lions thoroughly deserve their place in the last eight.

He said: "We've played well every game. Even against France we could hold our heads up high. Probably the Switzerland game was our worst performance but we finished it convincingly and I think we totally deserve to be in the next round.

"I thought the team played really well against Croatia. To win 4-2 was a great game to watch and play in. I think we controlled the game and if we wanted to push forward even more I think there was more in it for us.

"I thought I played well enough as well. As a striker you have to do something in the game if you are not scoring goals.

"I knocked in the cross for Wayne to score against Swtizerland and had a hand in a couple of the goals against Croatia. But in my position I have to do that. You have to either score goals or create them. I prefer to be scoring them but hopefully that's to come!"

There's little doubt that Owen will hit the net sooner or later - he has already scored at the World Cup finals of 1998, the European Championships of 2000 and the World Cup of 2002. And his partnership with Rooney is looking more and more lethal by the day.

He said: "I have played with Wayne for a while now and he's such an intelligent player that anyone could play with him. He likes to drop off and link play as well as score goals.

"But I think his natural game is to just to play off the striker. He's fantastic and I feel our partnership is working really well. I try to pull the defenders back as far as possible and I think it's worked. I've managed to create a lot of space for him in the few games so far.

"Wayne has no fear and when he's so confident anything can happen. You know what footballers are like, after the first game I was quite low in confidence and it's gradually coming back up now. But he's been on a high from the start and he believes he can do anything. Hopefully we'll both hit that high against Portugal."