Portugal's last game against the Netherlands saw 16 yellow and four red cards brandished as it descended into chaos, and Beckham is ready for a tough encounter with their bogey team in the quarterfinal clash.

"The English mentality, we love physical games, we love games that are high tempo with the tackles flying in so if it is like that then we will enjoy it," he said.

"Whatever referee comes in is going to have a tough job because you have two teams that want to go into the semifinals, who want to win this game and are very passionate. It'll have to be strong referee and I expect he is."

The referee assigned to the match is Argentina's Horacio Elizondo, who sent off Beckham for a studs-up tackle six years ago in a match between Manchester United and Mexican side Necaxa.

England go into the game with a fully fit squad following Gary Neville's recovery from a calf injury and are keen to put one over Portugal who bundled them out of the 2004 European Champion-ships at the same stage.

While the England captain wants revenge, he insists that the past is the past and the players should not let it affect their performances.

"We want to make it a different result to when we last played them but as long as we concentrate on our game and are relaxed then hopefully we can change the result that we got against them last time," he said.

"But we've just got to forget what has happened in the past at the end of the day. We can't concentrate on past results, we are looking forward to the future and the future is Saturday.

"We need to go into it confident, relaxed. We can't think about anything that might happen after that because you can get carried away. But we are quietly confident."

Beckham said he had the greatest respect for the Portugal team and their charismatic coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, and knows they will play an attacking, open game which he hopes will allow England to also play better football.

"Great teams like this you can't stop them playing sometimes," he said.

"They will have a lot of possession, of course, but it up to us to pass the ball around well. As a team and as players we know we can do that and on a big stage like this it is important.

"Portugal will pass the ball around well, because it is in their nature, so they will have a certain amount of possession and hopefully we will too."

England have been criticised for their lacklustre performances so far, which they have blamed on the heat and teams they have faced so far being willing to get 11 men behind the ball and play a more defensive game.

Beckham admits they need to play better and there can be more excuses, but he also called for the nation to get behind the team.

"Physically we have struggled in tournaments in the past, and in a couple of games in this tournament we have struggled physically becasue of the heat, but it is up to us to overcome that now," he said.

"Let's have a bit of positivity and get behind the team."