From Sportlive
Captain Alan Shearer insists that England must not seek revenge against Argentina - but concentrate instead on getting fans to believe in the national side again.
Memories of the 1998 World Cup defeat on penalties and David Beckham's sending off will inevitably come flooding back at Wembley.
However, Shearer insists that the national side, who have not watched a video of their St Etienne defeat in the build-up, must focus their minds forward on preparing for the European Championship finals. For he admits that England have a job on their hands to restore the country's faith in them following the criticism which rained down on the side after their 1-0 defeat at home to Scotland - even though they qualified for the Euro 2000 finals.
Shearer declared: "It'll be tremendous if we win but it's not about getting revenge over Argentina. We want to win the game for our own reasons to start on the road to Euro 2000.
"It's important that we go out and set the right tone because it was a disappointing performance against Scotland. So now we will hopefully go out and put in a good display, play the right way and get everyone rowing in the same direction, cheering on England and looking forward to Euro 2000."
As for the unsporting reaction of the Argentina players in victory as they hurled abuse at the England players as they left the stadium in St Etienne, Shearer added: "It wasn't nice but life is too short to hold a grudge."
Indeed, with reference to his own falling-out with Sir Alex Ferguson after Newcastle's recent win against Manchester United, he observed wryly: "I suppose we've all said and done things after a match in the heat of the moment!"
Apart from comparisons between Shearer and Gabriel Batistuta, the main focus will undoubtedly be upon the midfield area. Argentina are blessed in that department with Diego Simeone, Juan Veron and Ariel Ortega - and up against them will be England's combustible trio of Beckham, Paul Scholes and Dennis Wise.
