England's Fabio Capello during a press conference at the Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein.

Fabio Capello has urged his players to shut out the historic significance of collisions between England and Germany in an attempt to focus minds before eagerly awaited the second-round encounter at Free State Stadium.

The English are saddled with a wretched record against these opponents in the World Cup, stretching back to the final in 1966, with the build-up to this tie dominated by the prospect of a dreaded penalty shoot-out to decide who progresses into the quarter-finals. Yet Capello believes his side have turned a corner, citing the encouraging display against Slovenia as evidence his squad have rekindled the confidence that propelled them so impressively through qualification.

"We have to play against all other teams here," said Capello. "We have to beat the big teams, and Germany are one of those. But this game is not about anything more. There is pressure, of course, but that is normal. The game against Slovenia was very important for us because I saw the spirit of the team again.

"We played very well – passed it well, switched the play well, everything was really good – and created chances, so I have big confidence in my team. The spirit is back. It has been like that in training this week, too."

Coping with the weight of history is more of an issue for England's players than their Italian manager, though only three of tomorrow's anticipated starters – Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and James Milner – have not tasted victory over the Germans.

"Experience helps when you're coping with all the talk of what this game means," said the captain, Steven Gerrard, a veteran of the 5-1 win in Munich in 2001. "There's a lot of pressure and it's a tense situation with so much at stake. But there's excitement too. We want to make sure we have no regrets after this match. In these games you need to stand up and be counted. It is the stage, growing up, that you want to be playing at. There could be a big moment in the game that could end up defining any player's career. So you look forward to it. I'd love nothing better than to lead these boys into the last eight."

Matthew Upson is expected to retain his place at centre-half in an unchanged side, despite Jamie Carragher's return from suspension, with Ledley King on the bench. Both captain and manager are confident that Rooney, who is yet to score in the tournament, can impose himself having recovered from a knock on his ankle. "It's only a matter of time before he scores," said Gerrard. "Top players like him put pressure on themselves to perform. Wayne's doing that."

"He's been scoring a lot of goals in training, and we hope he'll take that on to the pitch in this match," added Capello. "But, even if he's not scoring, he has been important for us with his movement, his assists and everything he does in a game. I was happy with his performance against Slovenia, and he needs to carry that into this game."The Germany coach Joachim Löw and the captain, Philipp Lahm, breached Fifa regulations by skipping last night's press conference at the stadium with their stand-in, the goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke, insisting their no-show was not a protest at being unable to train on the stadium's pitch. It was, he said, merely down to "time constraints", which seemed bizarre given the squad had undertaken their session in Bloemfontein at the university ground a stone's throw from the arena.

Rather, it appeared it could have been perceived as an attempt at mind games given how the issues of penalties has dominated in the build-up to this fixture, with Kopke the goalkeeper who saved from Gareth Southgate in the semi-final shoot-out at Euro 96.

The coach did confirm that the Stuttgart forward, Cacau, will miss the game with an abdominal muscle tear, though Bastian Schweinsteiger and Jerome Boateng trained yesterday and should have recovered from hamstring and calf problems respectively to feature.

Germany (4-3-3; probable): Neuer; Lahm, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Badstuber; Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira; Muller, Klose, Podolski.

On a yellow card: Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira, Muller.

Injured: Cacau (stomach).

England (4-4-2; probable): James; Johnson, Terry, Upson, A Cole; Milner, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard; Rooney, Defoe.

On a yellow card: Gerrard, Milner, Johnson.

Referee: J Larrionda (Uruguay).