England unveil World Cup dates
Fabio Capello helped negotiate England's World Cup qualifying fixture list
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Monday, 14, Jan 2008 11:12
Fabio Capello claimed he already had a crucial edge over World Cup qualification rivals Croatia after finalising England's fixtures for their 2010 campaign.
The Italian's first competitive clash will be a trip to Andorra on September 6th before a match away in Croatia four days later.
Slaven Bilic's side will come to Wembley for the group six return match almost exactly a year later on September 9th 2009.
Capello declared himself happy to have scheduled his team's toughest games at the start of the domestic season after emerging from a fixtures meeting in the Croatian capital.
"September is a good month for English footballers, so to play them [Croatia] then is ideal," he said.
England's home meeting with their Euro 2008 nemeses will be the first in a trio of matches that close their campaign with a visit to the Ukraine followed by the arrival of Belarus for the final game on 14th October.
The agreement reached by the FA and its counterparts from Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra has also handed England two ties that will interrupt their stars' usual summer break.
However the matches against relative minnows Kazakhstan and Andorra on June 6th and 10th respectively should prove relatively straightforward despite a lack of immediate match fitness.
England's 2010 World Cup qualifying fixtures:
Andorra (a) Saturday, September 6th 2008
Croatia (a) Wednesday, September 10th 2008
Kazakhstan (h) Saturday, October 11th 2008
Belarus (a) Wednesday, October 15th 2008
Ukraine (h) Wednesday, April 1st 2009
Kazakhstan (a) Saturday, June 6th 2009
Andorra (h) Wednesday, June 10th 2009
Croatia (h) Wednesday, September 9th 2009
Ukraine (a) Saturday, October 10th 2009
Belarus (h) Wednesday, October 14th 2009