England captain David Beckham said Friday he was confident he would be able to play in Saturday's Euro 2004 Group 7 qualifier against Macedonia.

Beckham told a press conference he expected to be 100 per cent fit after picking up a groin strain playing for Real Madrid on Tuesday.

"We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it'll go well," he said of a scheduled training session later in the day.

"You have to be 100 per cent fit to play in games at this level."

But he said the injury was not serious.

"I only tweaked the muscle."

Beckham is vital to England who have already lost Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Trevor Sinclair and Rio Ferdinand through injury.

England coach Sven Goran Eriksson said they would need Beckham for what should be a challenging match.

"Doctors gave him treatment yesterday. He seems to be OK for training today and even better for tomorrow," the Swede said. "I know he's very keen to play for England.

"To have experienced players is always very good and David is one of those.

"Its a very difficult game. I've seen on tape all the games they've played so far. I was especially impressed with the game they played in Turkey. I think they could have won this game."

Turkey were fined 50,000 Swiss francs (32,000 euros, 37,000 dollars) for crowd trouble in that match in Istanbul after fans threw bottles and coins at Macedonia players when the visitors took a 2-1 lead.

World Cup semi-finalists Turkey twice came from behind before winning 3-2.

"We need to keep our heads very cool and play the football we know we can," Eriksson said of Saturday's match.

Macedonia, who held England 2-2 at Southampton, are looking to cause another upset under new coach Dragan Kanatlarovski although midfielders Goce Sedloski and Igor Jancevski are suspended, while defender Aleksandar Vasoski and striker Robert Popov are out injured.

But the two men who scored against England at Southampton, Artim Sakiri who curled a corner over goalkeeper David Seaman, and Vanco Trajanov, are both fit.

England are lying second in the group, two points behind Turkey, but have played one game less.

Only the group winners automatically qualify for next summer's finals in Portugal. Ten group runners-up go into a playoff.