England have begun their preparations for the World Cup by pencilling in a series of friendlies against Italy, Brazil and Germany, the three most successful nations in the history of the competition.
As Gareth Southgate prepares to lead his team into Monday’s game against Slovakia, when a win at Wembley will all but confirm their qualification for next summer’s tournament in Russia, the FA is already putting in place the arrangements for England’s warmup matches.
A friendly against Holland in Amsterdam has also been scheduled after Southgate told the FA he wanted a run of challenging fixtures, rather than games when England would be expected to win easily, and that he believes it is worth taking the risks that apply when playing elite opposition.
Southgate is taking a calculated gamble and will hope England do better than when Roy Hodgson tried something similar before the last World Cup, leading to successive defeats at Wembley in the space of four days to Germany and Chile in November 2013.
England’s schedule will not be announced before the team have sealed their qualification because the FA does not want to open itself to allegations of being overly presumptuous. However, the Observer can reveal the early plan is to face Germany and Brazil in November at Wembley and then Italy and Holland will follow in March. “We want to test ourselves against really good teams,” Southgate said. “We have to get Monday right first. If we get Monday right we are in a fantastic position and, after that, we have to play the best and really test ourselves. People talk about the problems England have in the major tournaments. For me, it’s not about the training or the hotels or anything like that. It’s because we are playing the best teams – and we have to keep playing those teams to get better.”
First, however, the top two sides in England’s qualifying group meet at Wembley and Southgate said it would be dangerous to underestimate Slovakia. “They’ve had a super result [beating Slovenia 1-0] and our matches with them have been really tight, first at the Euros and then in Slovakia when it took us until the last minute [to score the winner]. They are strong, proud and have good players like Marek Hamsik who can hurt you. But it’s a fantastic opportunity for us – a home game, and if we get the right result we are virtually in Russia.”
Southgate’s team were jeered by their own fans during the 4-0 win in Malta on Friday, when three of England’s goals came after most of their travelling supporters had already decided they had seen enough and headed for the exits.
Southgate’s response to the first-half barracking was to withdraw Raheem Sterling at half-time, when the score was still 0-0, but he said the Manchester City player had accepted the decision.
“As a creative player, some days everything you do works and some days it doesn’t,” Southgate said. “You could see in the first half, it was the latter for Raheem – but he will bounce back from that. He’s ballsy. He’s a lad we love. It’s difficult but he took it really professionally.”
Southgate was asked about Wayne Rooney’s arrest for alleged drink-driving on Friday and whether the court’s verdict could potentially change any plans for a Wembley tribute to England’s former captain and all-time record scorer. “It’s a difficult moment for him and his family and I don’t think it would be right for me to comment any further,” he said. “It’s sad to read the news but that’s all it’s appropriate to say.”