Gerrard Admits to Pressure before Face off with Bulgaria

England captain Steven Gerrard celebrates after scoring his second goal against Hungary during an international friendly soccer match at Wembley Stadium in London, Britain, 11 August, 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has admitted England players are feeling the pressure ahead of their European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria on Friday in the wake of a dismal World Cup performance.

"The players and the manager realize we are under pressure at the moment, which is normal after under-performing at the World Cup," Gerrard, who will again captain England in the absence of injured first-choice skipper Rio Ferdinand, said at England's team hotel on Thursday.

"A win always helps in this situation. That is the challenge. The difficult thing is there is slightly more pressure on us this time. But we have to cope with that and handle it.

"Hopefully the booing is behind us now and we can give a good performance. We certainly have the exciting players in the squad to get off to a winning start.

"We qualified really well for the World Cup playing good attacking football and if we can put in a good performance and take maximum points, we will go into the next game with confidence."

Gerrard made it clear he is ready to take on the responsibility for his team, which will suffer from the absence of injured stars John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch.

"I'm really enjoying being captain," he said. "I've captained Liverpool for many years and thrive on responsibility. My performances for England have been good with the armband.

"It does make it more difficult to have injuries because they are fantastic players with big experience.

"But now they are injured it puts a bit more responsibility on myself and the other experienced players to try to pull the lads together and get two wins.

"After the team under-performed in South Africa there have been changes made. And, with injuries to big players, it's a fantastic opportunity for people to stake a claim and give the manager something to think about when we next get together."

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