Liverpool striker Peter Crouch is set to start for England in the crucial must-win Euro 2008 Group E qualifier in Estonia tonight.

The lanky Reds forward was a late substitute in the international friendly against Brazil on June 1 at the new Wembley Stadium.

Steve McClaren’s side conceded in the injury time to draw that match 1-1 but only a win tonight against the minnows Estonia could put England back on track to qualify for next year’s finals in Austria and Switzerland.

The Three Lions are fourth in the group with 11 points from six matches while Croatia lead with 16. Russia and Israel have 14 points each but the latter have played seven games. Estonia are yet to open their account after losing all their six games and have not even scored a single goal.

Crouch had missed the qualifiers in Israel and against Andorra as he had undergone nose surgery. He would be paired with former Liverpool star Michael Owen up front.

However, the dogged Estonians would not be complete pushovers as they have not conceded a lot of goals so far.
Fully aware of the challenge ahead, Owen said: “We need to win. If we do win, it will be a great result. But Estonia can defend all right because they only seem to lose by one or two goals as was shown against Croatia at the weekend.
“They are going to defend and we have seen it before when travelling to these sort of teams.
“If we get an early goal, we might be able to win by more than one goal but if we don’t it will be like most games and the sooner everyone understands these games away from home are tough, the better.”

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