Gerrard will lead his country in England's first game of 2008 with words of praise ringing in his ears from his new international boss.
Capello, however, has yet to announce his full time captain although it looks to be a straight race between Gerrard and Chelsea's John Terry to take the honour.
Capello said: "Steven Gerrard is the Liverpool captain - and Liverpool are a very important team which won the Campions League.
"He is a player who commands authority and can lead by example on the pitch and inspire the team. I think he is an important player for England and he will be the captain for this match.
"He is not going to be a permanent captain and I am not going to announce a permanent captain before the Andorran game.
"But at the moment, I believe Steven Gerrard is important for everyone, for all the players we have, because he is a player who can transmit things and, like I said, can inspire players."
Gerrard is relishing the chance to lead his side out at Wembley tonight, although he's not yet thinking about being skipper of his country on a long term basis.
"I don't want to sit here and put my name forward to get the captaincy because I think that would be disrespectful to John Terry who is still our leader at the moment," he added.
"He is not here for Wednesday and it will be a nice and a proud feeling to lead out Fabio's first team at Wembley.
"But Fabio says he will not make his final choice until the World Cup qualifiers and that gives all the candidates time to prove they are worthy of being captain."
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