FORMER Saints starlet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain confessed watching young Brazilian kids playing beach football scared him ahead of scoring in Sunday's friendly at the Maracana Stadium.

"It was great to see the footballing culture and how everyone was playing football," said Oxlade-Chamberlain, who now has scored three goals in 12 games for England.

"My hotel window looked right out on to the (Copacabana) beach and I could see people playing football until 9pm every night.

"I went down a few days ago to watch them play head tennis. Some of the first touches over here are frightening.

"I would have been scared to go over and join in with them. Even the bigger boys had good touches as well.

"To be around it really does open your eyes to what a great tournament next year's World Cup could be.

"It's a great footballing nation and to see the passion the fans have and how much people love football over here only drives us on to make sure we want to come back here next year."

England still have a lot of work to do before they are assured of a place in the World Cup.

A Montenegro win against Ukraine on Friday will leave England five points off the top of Group H with four matches left.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, still only 19, is sure to play an important part in the remaining fixtures, possibly in central midfield, where he came on on Sunday night.

The teenager - who made his Saints debut aged just 16 in March 2010 - is used to playing on the wing, but he accepts that he will have to be versatile if his England career is to progress.

He added: "I grew up as a more natural midfielder so whenever I get the opportunity to come on in midfield I try to do so and I'm happy and excited to show that I've got some attributes in midfield.

"When the opportunities to come on in the middle then I've got to try and show that I can take them and that I've got another side to my game."