Bernd Stange believes it would be a "European sensation" if Belarus were to take anything from England.

The 60-year-old is maintaining an optimistic, if not realistic, approach to their match against an England side that is yet to drop a point from three games in qualifying.

Since taking charge last July Stange has revamped the national team, opting for a youth policy which, while unsuccessful at first, has since led to wins against Holland 1-0 to finish their Euro 2008 campaign, before friendly draws with Germany and Argentina.

It has created a surge of popularity in the sport with the national team rising to their highest ever FIFA ranking, 57th, last month.

And a sell-out crowd at the 40,000-capacity Dinamo Stadium in Minsk is expected with Stange hoping he can add England to the list of names his side have claimed a result from.

"Football in Belarus is now booming. We have a run for football," he said.

"Usually we had just 2,000 or 3,000 in the stadiums and it was not good. But after we played teams like Holland and Argentina, and we played well against them, now the crowds are coming to the stadium.

"Now we have England and of course it will be difficult. We are only little Belarus. It will be a European sensation if we even get a draw.

"But I cannot tell my young players only to go for a draw, we must be optimistic and play to win."

Belarus have shown signs of their improvement in the World Cup qualification campaign so far, with an impressive 3-1 win against Andorra preceded by a 1-0 loss in Ukraine, when a debatable last-minute penalty denied them a deserved point.

Stange's side will have to make do without their captain and Barcelona midfielder Aleksandr Hleb, although England have their own injury problems with their captain, John Terry, and his Chelsea team-mate Ashley Cole unavailable.

Rio Ferdinand is again expected to wear the captain's armband as he was handed the honour in their 5-1 win against Kazakhstan on Saturday.

That was England's third win in as many games to start the campaign and victory in Minsk would represent the country's best-ever start to a World Cup qualification tilt.

But despite their good form striker Jermain Defoe knows his side can not afford to underestimate their hosts.

"The lads are confident. You can imagine after the Croatia game last month (when they won 4-1) that everyone was buzzing. We want to keep it going and got another result at the weekend," Defoe said

"We will be watching the videos on Belarus, so everyone in their minds will know exactly what they are good at and what they are not good at.

"No game at this level is easy. We won't underestimate them, but if we work hard and pass the ball like we can do we should get the three points."

In Wednesday night's only other game in Group Six, Croatia are expected to get their campaign back on track at home to bottom-placed Andorra.

Slaven Bilic's side suffered a chastening 4-1 defeat to England last month, which ended their unbeaten record at home, before registering an uninspiring goalless draw with Ukraine at the weekend.

Despite both sides failing to flatter in that game, Bilic believes his side are returning to the sort of form which took them through to the knockout stages of Euro 2008.

"We are back and that is the main thing," Bilic said.

"We've managed to get over the England loss in a short time and we've showed we are a team. In the upcoming games we can be more convincing and this game has made us very optimistic."