Former England international Paul Parker has compared his namesake Scott to a headless chicken.

The Three Lions take on Italy this evening with a place in the semi-finals against Germany on Thursday night at stake.

Having identified Andrea Pirlo as Italy's key player in Kiev, Paul Parker believes that it will be captain Steven Gerrard, rather than Parker, causing danger from an England point of view.

"[Italy] have Andrea Pirlo in midfield and he is an excellent passer of the ball who controls games, so England have to work out how they will deal with him," he told Goal.com. "Are they going to allow Scott Parker to try to thwart him because he has covered more yards than anyone, running around like a chicken with no head?

"[Parker] doesn't really touch the ball a lot and when he does touch it he doesn't really do a lot with it. His strength is to upset teams and get the ball and give it to people who can do something with it, and that's mainly Steven Gerrard - who is England's best player by far because of his hard work and endeavour.

"It looks as though if anything is going to happen it will come through him."

Former Manchester United full-back Paul Parker made 19 appearances for the England senior side.