England right-back Gary Neville has warned his team-mates they will have no excuses if they fail to beat Portugal in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final in Gelsenkirchen.

The Manchester United defender accepts that the current crop of players have to make their mark on the international stage by reaching the semi-finals, otherwise they can be considered failures - having reached the last eight four years ago.

Neville told reporters: "If we fail on Saturday then we have to hold our hands up and say 'we haven't delivered, the talk of us actually being potential world champions was rubbish'.

"We have to respond to the challenge if we want to be recognised as a great England team.

"Otherwise we will be recognised as a nearly team, a team that promised and had potential but didn't deliver.

"We have had a pretty decent track to this quarter-final and now we have got to beat Portugal to get to the World Cup semi-final.

"Is this England team capable of doing that? Can we do it? I believe the answer is yes.

"Is this England team as good as it thinks it is? We find out on Saturday. There will be no excuses.

"If it's not, then I will be talking at half past seven on Saturday night, saying you have found the measure of this team.

"We know that the quarters, semi-finals and finals are what is expected of this team.

"We don't shy away from that, this is what we are here for."