The Liverpool midfielder believes the Three Lions still have a fighting chance in Brazil, despite not being one of the favourites to win the competition
Steven Gerrard admits there are far better teams at the 2014 World Cup than England, but says the Three Lions will do all they can to try and bring the trophy home.
The draw for next summer’s tournament takes place on Friday and sees England unseeded for the first time since 2002, meaning they could be paired in a group with the likes of Spain, Germany or Brazil.
And while the Liverpool midfielder concedes that such nations have a much better chance of winning the World Cup, he is not ruling out the prospect of the Three Lions coming out on top in the competition for the first time since 1966.
“We’re not one of the favourites, I think we know that,” the England captain told Fifa’s official website.
“At the same time, you have to go into this tournament with a bit of belief and confidence and give it your best shot.
“Of course, there are better teams out there than us. You just need to look at the rankings to see where we are, but we need to go there and give it our best shot.”
With few giving England a realistic chance of winning the World Cup in Brazil, Gerrard feels the lack of pressure on the team could turn out to be a real advantage.
“I think it will be. You go into a World Cup where people judge you fairly and they’re not blowing you up to what you’re not and there’s not too much pressure or expectations on the players. I’m sure that will help us,” Gerrard added.
“When we get our full strength team back with likes of [Danny] Welbeck, [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain and [Theo] Walcott, we’ll have a good team and a team that can go to the World Cup and compete.”
Fellow England midfielder Jack Wilshere feels the friendly losses to Chile and Germany last month have also reduced expectation levels as the tournament edges ever closer.
“I think they have. When you lose games, that’s what happens,” he said. “People are going to say, “The two teams we lost to are going to the World Cup”.
“We had two good results in October [against Montenegro and Poland], so we can’t be too hard on ourselves. They were two tough games [against Chile and Germany] but we had chances in both games.”