STEVEN Gerrard says England are in a must-win situation but “wants to make the nation proud” with victory over Slovenia in Port Elizabeth.

The England captain has insisted the players have a “hunger and desire” to make amends for the woeful performance during the goal -less draw with Algeria on Friday.

England have to beat current Group C leaders Slovenia to make sure of their place in the last 16 and Gerrard knows there has to be a significant improve-ment.

The Liverpool skipper wants a return to the form demonstrated during the qualifying campaign when Fabio Capello’s side won nine of their 10 matches.

The 30-year-old said: “It is a do-or-die situation. We need to perform, we need to improve on the last perform-ance. In the last perform-ance, we didn’t do what we did in the qualifying games.

“In those, we were confi-dent, played aggressive foot-ball, pressed really well and were also very compact and difficult to beat.

“There were things missing from the Algerian performance. We let the country down by under-performing and I can see the hunger in the guys.

“We can’t wait for the game to start to put it right.

“We want to start the game really well, play compact and be difficult to beat, but also have the cutting edge in the final third to score goals.”

He added: “We want to make the nation proud and happy and a good win can give the players more confidence.”