He said: “England may have the advantage of playing at Wembley (Stadium), their home turf, but it must be remembered that Italy have not lost in more than 30 games.”

Matlan told FMT: “My prediction is 50-50, maybe 0-0 or 1-1 and then the match will be dragged to the penalty shootout.”

Matlan, 52 years, netted against the Three Lions not once, but twice in a friendly match at Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, in 1991 between Malaysia and an England squad captained by Gary Lineker.

England came out on top, with a Lineker blitz of four goals, after scoring his fifth international hat-trick within the first 30 minutes, and missing a chance to make it five.

Matlan’s feat is said to be the equal of the 35-year record of former Austrian player, Toni Fritsch, when he managed to score twice against England on his international debut.

Matlan said he has kept his number 7 jersey that he wore during the friendly match against England until today.

There are some parties who want to buy the jersey from him but he decided not to sell it. “Some offered up to RM20,000 for the jersey, but I don’t want to sell it, the jersey is one of the sweetest memories in my life,” he said.

Matlan’s teammates that day included Azizol Abu Haniffah, Chow Siew Yai, Serbegeth Singh, Ahmad Yusof, Dollah Salleh and Zainal Abidin Hassan.

The England team only a year before had advanced to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup. The squad included great players such as Stuart Pearce, Mark Wright, David Batty and David Platt.