Goal Mines

Henry likes to drift out wide and use his devastating pace to run at defences, before delivering a killer pass or scoring himself.

Owen relies much more on service from wide players or midfielders, and that could be a crucial factor in the Group B match.

Henry finished the English premier league season with 30 goals for champions Arsenal while Liverpool’s Owen managed just 16 after missing much of the season with a variety of injuries.

Henry seems to be a player who has everything. When he created two goals and scored a couple himself in Arsenal’s 5-1 Champions League demolition of Inter Milan at the San Siro last November his full repertoire was on show.

Solo goals from the halfway line, free kicks curled into the top corner and clinical close-range finishing are all in his bag of tricks

At international level he is more of a supplier to David Trezeguet than a scorer himself although he has bagged 25 goals in 59 internationals.

Owen has never quite lived up to the promise he showed when, as a relatively unknown 18-year-old, he scored one of the finest goals of the 1998 World Cup in a second round defeat by Argentina, after a surging run from midfield.

His 25 goals in 56 matches for England have included many match-winners and the diminutive Owen’s goal-poaching on the international stage is a vital part of his country’s ammunition.

Defenders never underestimate Owen because they know that Left alone for a few seconds, he can pounce to turn a fairly ordinary performance into a priceless one. He may have lost a touch of pace but his eye for goal remains deadly.

The striker who comes out on top in Sunday’s battle willtake the bragging rights back to the premier league next season. Who that is will depend as much on their markers as themselves.

If Owen finds the ageing limbs of 35-year-old Marcel Desailly between him and the goal it should be no contest while Henry could be up against the pacy Ledley King, 23, who did a fine job on the Frenchman for Tottenham last season.