Frank Lampard admits his long international career has been tinted with frustration due to England's failure to perform in major tournaments.

Lampard is expected to join the likes of Sir Bobby Charlton, David Beckham and Peter Shilton in the 100-cap club tomorrow night when England play Ukraine in Kiev.

The 35-year-old, who won his 99th cap against Moldova last Friday, has enjoyed 14 adventurous years within the England set-up, scoring 29 times and captaining the Three Lions on five occasions.

But despite all of the stunning right-foot drives, the clinical penalties and masterful assists, Lampard could not look back on his international career today without mentioning the World Cup 2010 'goal' not given and the nagging sense of disappointment that has been prevalent in every England player since the team won the World Cup in 1966.

Lampard has tasted three quarter-final defeats and one World Cup second-round exit in South Africa, and unless England pull off a series of shocks in Brazil next summer - providing they qualify - his international career will have ended without success at a major tournament.

Lampard made his debut way back in 1999 at the Stadium of Light where an England team containing the likes of Paul Ince, Alan Shearer and Tony Adams beat Belgium 2-1.

Having been brought up listening to stories from his father Frank Snr, who won two caps, about West Ham and England greats like Bobby Moore, Lampard is well aware of how big a landmark reaching 100 caps is.

"It will mean a huge deal to me and to my family," Lampard said. "I was lucky enough to grow up in a football family. It was my life from a very young age.

"My dad had a huge amount of respect for Bobby Moore so I realised from a very young age how much of an honour it was to play for your country. It's a huge thing for me. I would like to think I carry some of those traits that Moore had."

Lampard listed scoring his first tournament goal at Euro 2004 as one of his highlights, and one of the low points include that infamous strike against Germany in Bloemfontein which was never given.

The incident was one of the major inspirations behind the introduction of goal-line technology, though, giving him an important if unwitting role in shaping football's future.

"Bloemfontein was a particular moment, thank God it brought something good in the end with the technology coming in," he said.

"But that's one of the lows, that and missing a penalty and getting knocked out of the 2006 World Cup in Germany against Portugal. There's nothing worse than flying homeafter being knocked out of a tournament."

Asked for his favourite of the goals that did stand, he said: "It would be the header in Euro 2004 against France, my first major tournament goal.

"We ended up losing the game, but personally, to do something like that on a major stage, I was overwhelmed. Scoring in that atmosphere was fantastic.

"The personal highlights are qualifying for championships, and ideally getting to 100 caps will be a highlight in itself. I've enjoyed every minute of travelling and playing tournaments with the country.

"It's like all our careers, though, in some respects - in the last near-on 50 years we've not gone and won anything."

Lampard will await manager Roy Hodgson's selection for tomorrow's match in Ukraine, though it seems highly unlikely the veteran would be overlooked.

"Roy hasn't said, so I'll just wait and try to prepare like always," he added. "I'll be proud if I start or get on at any stage.

"But the main thing is to get a result, it wouldn't be enjoyable for me to get to 100 and then not get the result so we've got to do it the right way.

"I never dreamt of getting near 100 caps so it's a huge honour for me and I won't take it lightly."

Previous centurions have been handed the captain's armband to honour the occasion - albeit after some confusion in the case of Cole, following Hodgson's bungled announcement - but Lampard said: "I don't think that's needed.

"We've got a great captain so we don't need to chop and change it too much. It's an important game and we've all got to be captains on the pitch."