Fabio Capello's team tackle the Confederations Cup winners in the Nationwide Challenge Match in Qatar on Saturday in what will be their penultimate game before the Italian must pick a provisional squad for South Africa 2010.

It sees Brazil joining a list of hand-picked friendly opponents that includes France, Germany, Spain and Holland which Capello feels have offered the perfect answers to so many of the questions that will be posed at the World Cup.

And Crouch, who will hope to maintain a remarkable goalscoring record of 16 in 17 internationals he has started if he gets the nod to partner Wayne Rooney, is eager to see what developments have been made.

"If we are going to have any aspirations of winning the World Cup we need to play the best," he said. "We have to find out about their strengths and weaknesses and see how close we are to them.

"It is all about preparing for the World Cup. If we lose, we have time to adapt and see where we went wrong. But the basic point is to test ourselves against the top nations - and Brazil are one of those."

Crouch has faced the most glamorous opposition of all once before.

He came on as a substitute in 2007 when the Samba stars swaggered into London to open the new Wembley and battled their way to a creditable draw.

Like most football fanatics, Crouch has seen the old films of Pele's magic, and that famous goal by Carlos Alberto which looked like it was going to rip the net in the 1970 final against Italy.

But his own introduction came through watching Ronaldo, who remains an idol to Crouch even now.

"Ronaldo was a great hero of mine. He still is," said the Tottenham striker. "I used to love watching him.

"Even as a professional, I admit there is something special about playing for Brazil.

"We all grew up watching the great Brazil teams and all those great flair players. It is a great fixture. They are a fantastic team, full of world-class players."

This is a more practical Brazil side though. In Kaka, they might boast one of the best players on the planet but coach Dunga has rejected some of the more frilly aspects of his country's style in favour of a hard-nosed edge.

There was not much gloss at the Confederations Cup. But Dunga's team emerged triumphant.

And Crouch knows Capello will not want to see too much magic either as the greatest prize in the game begins to glisten in the distance.

"Our manager will want us to be tough and difficult to beat," he revealed.

"He wants us to win every single game. We have had that mindset in every friendly we have played and it will continue.

"We have to be confident going into a major tournament and the coach will want a result on Saturday, make no mistake about that."