Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has been named England captain for Saturday's friendly with World Cup winners Germany in Berlin.

England's stand-in captain Gary Cahill is hoping history will repeat itself in Berlin when the Chelsea centre-back leads out the team to face Germany on Saturday.

The 30-year-old will wear the captain's armband against the world champions at the Olympic Stadium with Wayne Rooney absent with a knee injury.

The last encounter between the two sides in Berlin saw England claim a 2-1 win in 2008.

It was another Chelsea centre-back, John Terry, who captained England and headed the winning goal in Berlin, something Cahill would love to emulate nearly eight years later.

"It would be nice if that was the case again tomorrow," he said on Friday in Germany's capital.

"It's a dream come true to play for England, but to captain your country is something extra and obviously it would be even sweeter to get a result."

This will be just the second time Cahill has worn the England captain's armband from the outset after October's Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Estonia.

England manager Roy Hodgson wants to use the friendlies against Germany and the Netherlands, next Tuesday at Wembley, to give the majority of his 22-man squad a chance.

But Cahill says while England want another win to throw down a marker for Euro 2016, the result will have no bearing on the finals in France.

"There are no friendly games when you pull on the English shirt, you want to go out and get victories," he said.

"We're moving in the right direction.

"These are two great tests for us and we know we are going to be judged against opposition like that.

"If we win the game here convincingly, it won't mean we'll win the Euro, likewise if we lose it won't mean we'll do badly."

With England missing the experience of Wayne Rooney's 109 caps, Hodgson expects to name an inexperienced side against the world champions.

But he has an impressive group of attackers to chose from in Daniel Sturridge, Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck, Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane.

And Hodgson compared the talented group at his disposal to where Joachim Loew's Germany squad were 10 years ago.

"If you look at the number of caps in our team compared to the Germany team, we will be way down," said Hodgson.

"But we are where Germany were after the 2006 World Cup when they had a good group of young players.

"And you can't get much further in the journey than winning the World Cup."