The England coach Fabio Capello
England’s build-up to next year’s World Cup finals will include a friendly against Brazil in Doha on November 14.
The FA has arranged for the match against the five-times World Cup winners to take place at the 50,000-capacity Khalifa International Stadium. It will be England’s first game in Qatar.
Fabio Capello, the England coach, has made a priority of organising friendlies against the world’s strongest teams in preparation for next year’s tournament in South Africa. “To play a team like Brazil will be important,” the Italian said. “We can understand more about ourselves and the level we must reach by playing the best teams.
“We have played Spain, Holland, Germany and France, some of the best teams in the world. In each of these games we have played away from home, which is important before South Africa. One of the benefits of securing qualification against Croatia is that we can start to plan for the World Cup and this match is one part of our plans.”
A 5-1 hammering of Croatia secured England’s place in South Africa with two games to spare, having won eight straight matches in their qualifying group. England have two qualifying fixtures to complete - away to Ukraine and at home to Belarus next month - before the Brazil match.
Another friendly has been scheduled for mid-March, with two more due to take place between the end of this season and the squad’s departure for South Africa. One of those is expected to be a game against Japan in Austria, where England plan to have a pre-tournament training camp at altitude.
Report by
Robert Dineen
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