BUEHLERTAL, Germany -- England's World Cup starts for real on Saturday.

And no excuse for failing to reach the semifinals will do.

"There is a time and a moment for players to deliver," defender Gary Neville said. "We're relatively honest, and if we fail you on Saturday as a country, then we have to hold our hands up and say we haven't delivered. You know, this talk of us being potential world champions was rubbish.

"This is it," he added. "Saturday for us is the measure of this team."

England plays Portugal in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.

Neville has heard all kinds of excuses for underachievement in the 10 years he's been on the English team, and he's in no mood to hear them yet again. At 31, he knows this is likely his last chance at winning a World Cup title.

"In four years time, we're in South Africa, it could be (113 degrees), we might not qualify, we could get a group of death," he said. "We've had a pretty decent track to this quarterfinal. We've got to beat Portugal to get into a World Cup semifinal. Is this England team capable of doing it? Can it do it? I believe the answer is yes."

Neville is expected to be back in the starting lineup at right back after missing England's last three matches with a calf injury. He said England had to take advantage of its "smoothest ride" to the quarterfinals in years.

England won its qualifying group with two victories and a draw. David Beckham scored on a free kick to give England a 1-0 victory over Ecuador in the second round and put the team in the quarterfinals.

"We've almost not been tested in a way," Neville said. "It almost feels like we've played three or four friendly matches. It doesn't feel like a World Cup. Whereas I think in 2004 we had the France game, in Euro '96 we had the Scotland and Holland games, in '98, we had Argentina."

That's both helped and hindered England, Neville said. But now is the time for the team to step up.

"We are not coming off that pitch on Saturday thinking 'We could have done this better, we could have done that better,"' he said. "We have to affect the match. We have to use our experience. We've got no other thought than to go into a quarterfinal of a World Cup and reach that semifinal. Then when we get to that, reach the final and be the first English team to get there since 1966."

If not, Neville said this England team will be remembered like so many others.

"A team that promised, had potential but didn't deliver," he said. "And it's how you're perceived in years to come. We're two games away from a World cup final -- can we win two football matches? I think this team is capable of beating anybody."

Portugal will be playing without Deco and Costinha, who are suspended after picking up two yellow cards in the second-round victory over the Netherlands. But Portugal is still a tough team, and Neville said that will give England even more motivation.

"It almost gives you a greater sense of nervous anxiety in your body, enthusiasm, that you know this is a game where you can go either way," he said. "You know that to win it, you either have to play well or be lucky. I'd accept both, but I'd prefer it to be the one where we played well and win."