Sorensen - hoping to shut out Owen (Allsport)

By John Curtis, PA Sport, Japan

Thomas Sorensen is confident that Denmark can "take care" of his Premiership tormentor Michael Owen - and spell World Cup misery for England in Saturday's second phase match in Niigata.

Owen has made a habit of scoring for Liverpool against Sorensen's Sunderland and has hit the net in each of his last four clashes with the Black Cats.

But he is still searching for his first goal in the tournament and Sorensen believes his side have got what it takes to keep Owen quiet.

The 26-year-old goalkeeper, now firmly established as the long term replacement for legend Peter Schmeichel, said: "Michael Owen is a good player and in the World Cup in every game you have to face good players.

"It is true that he has a good record against me in the Premiership - but this is a different team and a different game and we all start from scratch.

"Owen is quick, has got ability to make something out of nothing and that is a characteristic of a great player.

"He won England the penalty against Argentina and is influential in every way and that's what good strikers are there for.

"They suddenly pop up and score and that's what you need - but on the other hand we have good players to take care of him."

Sorensen has every faith in Jon Dahl Tomasson being able to unlock the English defence and add to his four goals in the 2002 finals to date.

Tomasson had a far from prolific spell with Newcastle United, managing just three goals in 23 games during the 1997-98 season, but Sorensen said: "He is not a surprise packet at this tournament.

"At Newcastle he was a youngster who was played as a striker and he is not really a striker. He's more an attacking midfielder.

"But for Denmark for the last five or six years he's been the best player and scored the most goals. We've always known he is a great player and now he's doing it on the big stage."

Sorensen also feels it is unfair to bracket Denmark as a surprise commodity in these finals after their record in recent years.

He said: "We haven't surprised ourselves. We have proved through the qualifiers that we are a very good team and we have proved it here as well.

"We had a couple of not so good games in the lead-up to the World Cup but we always believe in each other and that is the key factor. We know on our day we can beat England or anyone."

But we also know that England are a very solid team and we know if we go behind then it will be very difficult so we will be aware of that."

Sorensen is aware of the danger that could be posed by the free-kicks of skipper David Beckham who was briefly a club-mate of his before he joined Sunderland.

He said: "I was a young kid who trained with Manchester United for a couple of weeks before the chance came to go to Sunderland and it gives a boost to a young kid when you train with the likes of Beckham, Andy Cole and Peter Schmeichel.

"Every team nowadays has got a specialist and England have Beckham. He's never beaten me with a free-kick or penalty but he is a great player we have to pay attention to.

"He's already been influential in every way with his corner for Sol Campbell's goal against Sweden and scoring the penalty against Argentina."