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 Danish 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."