England's football fans and media appear to be pretty worried about the Three Lions taking on Germany in the knockout stages of another major tournament - but this is obviously more to do with history than a comparison of quality in both squads.

When the Germans confirmed top spot in Group D by beating Ghana 1-0 on Wednesday night, you could just sense a feeling of "Oh no not again" taking over the country and dampening the earlier joy of scraping into the last 16 following a nervy 1-0 triumph over Slovenia.

I suppose on one hand this is understandable - they've seen it all before and fear that once again they're going to blow it against the old enemy. Probably on penalties.

In the build-up to the game we'll be repeatedly reminded of Peter Bonetti's goalkeeping blunders in 1970, Gazza's tears and Waddle's woeful penalty at Italia 90 and of course the Wembley heartache of Euro '96. It's almost as if we actually love digging up these negative thoughts of failure and hard-luck stories from the past.

Even Jermain Defoe seems to echo the thoughts of the nation, saying: "I remember 1990 and the penalties and Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) crying. There are so many memories in my head. But, because of the record against Germany, you don't want to think about what happened.

"It is important for the players not to think about the history between the two sides."

It would be interesting to know if the people of Germany have the same attitude about 1966 and much more recently the 5-1 mauling in Munich back in 2001, which was meant to banish all of England's bad memories once and for all.

Everybody also seems to forget that England beat Germany at Euro 2000 and although this was soured by the fact they still failed to get out of the group stage, the result does at least prove history has been overcome before in an international tournament.

So bearing all this in mind, let's instead focus on the here and now.

England are seemingly back on track after edging out Slovenia and more importantly the manner of their much-improved performance suggests they have thankfully put all those off-the-field problems behind them. And not before time either.

Sure, they only managed one goal against a side considered tournament minnows, but there was undeniably a greater sense of urgency and attacking spark in their play, not to mention the clear signs of unity and passion.

Even Fabio Capello joined his players in their celebrations at the full-time whistle and you could even argue a stronger bond has been formed in the wake of the controversy surrounding John Terry's outspoken comments following those dreadful draws with the United States and Algeria.

Capello said: "I saw the spirit we had lost in the games we played before."

They now have fire in their bellies and a determination to keep proving the doubters wrong so we're expecting more of the same in a match no English player should need any extra incentive to stand up and be counted.

But will this be enough to win?

Germany looked impressively slick in their Group D opener and their price to lift the trophy tumbled across the board as they hit four past 10-man Australia with forwards Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller and Cacau all getting on the scoresheet.

Joachim Low's side then came back down to earth with a 1-0 defeat by Serbia although the rather unfortunate dismissal of Klose at 0-0 was clearly a key turning point.

It meant the pressure was on against Ghana but like England did just hours earlier, they responded well to claim a decisive 1-0 win at Soccer City thanks to a superb second-half strike from rising star Mesut Ozil.

On balance, when you examine all three performances of both sides, Germany have probably won most admirers but England will start as marginal bookies favourites due to the perception they have a slightly superior group of players - even though they've yet to truly sparkle as a team.

One individual in particular who has not lived up to the hype is Wayne Rooney but as Low puts it: "He is always ready to explode."

No-one questions his hunger and ambition to succeed - for some reason it just hasn't clicked for him in South Africa while his ongoing goal drought is a source of frustration.

But as we all know from his domestic exploits, the Manchester United striker is an extremely dangerous proposition when he is like a wounded animal and he won't need reminding the country needs him at the top of his game if they're to go on and win this World Cup.

Rooney can't be and won't want to be carried any longer so we're going to back him at 2.62 with Bet365 to score at anytime.

Yes, he had to be taken off against Slovenia after appearing to hurt his ankle but he'll be fine for Sunday and raring to go.

England are a top priced 2.62 with Bet365 to win this last-16 clash inside the 90 minutes and we're confident they're good enough to get the job done before the anxieties of extra-time and penalties.

Maybe then the nation will finally put their German demons to bed...

Verdict: England 2 Germany 1