"When you go this far in the competition, you're up against sides who won't let you beat them by playing like that. This is the time, the last eight, when we've got to raise our performance or we could be on the plane home. I'm desperate not to go home. I want to stay for the whole duration," said Gerrard.
"We've got to pass the ball better and keep the ball better. We're trying to force the play too much. We need to play at a higher tempo but it's been difficult because most of our matches have been in the early afternoon and it's difficult to pass the ball on these pitches because they're so dry. But some teams that everyone's been saying have played great football are on the way home. We've had criticism, and rightly so, but it's not too late to start playing well. If we put in a good performance and go into the last four, we won't be scared of anyone.
"It's that fine line between scoring and not scoring. Scoring goals gives you confidence. He's scored so many goals for Chelsea and for England over the past couple of years and because he hasn't scored in this competition he's maybe doubting himself. His all-round play has been good. We're happy with that. But he's set himself such high standards that, if he doesn't score for a couple of games, people are going to doubt him. He's getting into the right positions, so we know he's going to score an important goal for us. Hopefully it'll be on Saturday.
"If we stay with the 4-5-1, the idea is to get me and Frank into goal-scoring positions. If you look at our performances all season, you'll see what we're trying to achieve. If I'm asked to play with Frank in a 4-4-2, I've got to be careful about when I go forward because I know Frank's going to go all the time.The holding player gives me a licence to get forward and try to make things happen in that area of the field, which is where I feel I produce my best stuff. I think it got better as the game went on. We've watched tapes of that game and we've done some things in training and I'm sure it'll improve.
"We want to be remembered as the second team to win the World Cup. That's the aim, simple as that. If we get the right result against Portugal, that'll give us the confidence to go all the way. People are saying that it would be great to get to the semi-final but I'm thinking, 'Well, I want to play in the World Cup final."