England v Portugal
Saturday 01 July 2006
World Cup, Quarter-Final
Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen
4pm kick off (London Time)

Frank Lampard has vowed to score a World Cup goal for England as the Three Lions head into a quarter-final clash against Portugal.

Lampard, who scored 23 times for club and country last season, is still waiting for his first strike of this tournament despite having a string of chances.

His shoot-on-sight policy has worked for him in the past, however, and he expects it to come good just at the right time!

He said: "The goals are just not going in for me, chances which I would normally eat up. Unfortunately it's the World Cup and I've now gone four games without a goal although they're going in during training.

"That's not unusual for a midfield player but with the standards I have set I expect to score.

"The big consolation is that we are winning games and alongside that my personal tally doesn't matter although there's always the feeling I may get a couple further down the line.

"I'm not going to shy away from it though. I'm going to keep making the runs and eventually you make you own luck."

Lampard admits England weren't at their very best during Sunday's 1-0 victory over Ecuador in the last 16. But considering the hot conditions and the quality of the opposition he believes it was a good victory.

He said: "The result is all-important. This is a World Cup and at this stage, it's all about winning first and foremost. In the first half we almost played within ourselves in the first half, we didn't stretch them enough or get behind them enough or play quick enough.

"In the second half we played with more urgency. especially in the first 20 minutes and that won us the game.

"Yes, I think we will have to raise our game now but I think that goes for everyone. You look at Argentina. Everyone fancied them to win the thing and at one stage against Mexico they looked as though they were going to struggle to go through.

"The important thing is winning these games and hopefully improving along the way."