England’s World Cup bid begins on Saturday night in the Amazonian outpost of Manaus against four-time champions Italy.
When the draw was made last December, Roy Hodgson admitted that he had hoped to avoid the jungle venue, which is 1,777 miles from their chosen base in Rio de Janeiro.
As well as the travelling and the tropical heat, which will be combined with an uncomfortable level of humidity, England must contend with a pitch at the Arena Amazonia which its own groundsman has described as ‘in bad shape’.
The main obstacle in Manaus will be a strong Italy side who knocked England out of Euro 2012 en route to reaching the final, but despite all these challenges the impression has been of a relaxed and confident camp under Hodgson.
The England boss, who has some World Cup experience after leading Switzerland to the 1994 tournament, has left no stone unturned in his preparations for Brazil after assembling his squad for a training camp in Portugal.
Following a 3-0 victory over Peru at Wembley, England flew out to Miami to get better acclimatised and drew 2-2 with Ecuador before playing out a goalless stalemate against Honduras in a match interrupted midway through the first half by a storm.
While the results and performances may have been uninspiring, the youthful squad selected by Hodgson has been tipped to make an impact at the World Cup and he is happy with the options he has at his disposal ahead of the clash with Italy.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has trained despite suffering medial knee ligament damage against Ecuador and the progress he has made has convinced Hodgson to keep him as part of the group.
Opta facts
- The one previous World Cup meeting between these two former winners came in the third place play-off in 1990; Italy won 2-1.
- Frank Lampard has had more shots without scoring than any other player at World Cups since 1966 (39 shots, no goals).
- Italy have scored in each of their last 14 games at the World Cup, the longest current run. The last time they failed to score was on 3 July 1998 against France.
The Arsenal midfielder is not likely to be considered for the Group D opener, when the main talking point has been the possible inclusion of Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling in one of the wide roles.
Sterling’s performances in training have reportedly been scintillating and an injury scare over Danny Welbeck had appeared to open the door for a starting spot, but the Manchester United forward has recovered from a thigh problem and is expected to start.
Southampton’s Adam Lallana looks set to cap a breakthrough year with a place in the team, while Wayne Rooney will hope to score his first goal at a World Cup finals as he lines up in support of Daniel Sturridge up front.
Joe Hart, Glen Johnson, Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill and Leighton Baines are almost certain to start so the final decision facing Hodgson is who to partner with captain Steven Gerrard in midfield, with Liverpool team-mate Jordan Henderson getting the nod over Jack Wilshere and James Milner in the final warm-up game.
Midfield is sure to be a key battleground as England seek to prevent Andrea Pirlo from dictating the tempo of the game as he did in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals, when Italy prevailed on penalties.
The Azzurri followed up their run to the European final two years ago with a straightforward qualification campaign and will now be desperate to make amends for a 2010 World Cup which was even more miserable than England’s, when they bowed out at the group stage as defending champions without winning a match.
Cesare Prandelli has acknowledged that his side must improve significantly as they have failed to win any of their past seven international fixtures, a run which has included warm-up draws against the Republic of Ireland and Luxembourg.
Italy stopped the rot to some extent with a 5-3 friendly win over Brazilian club side Fluminense, when Ciro Immobile scored a hat-trick to boost his chances of making the starting XI.
Defender Mattia De Sciglio will miss out against England after sustaining a leg injury during Thursday’s training session, but Prandelli will have the rest of his players available after Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti recovered from flu.
Italy go on to play Costa Rica in their second Group D fixture, while England also head back south to take on Uruguay in Sao Paulo on Thursday.
