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England confirm Brazil friendly

SoccerNews in English Premier League, World Cup 23 Sep 2009

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England’s build-up to next year’s World Cup finals will include a friendly against Brazil in Doha on November 14, the Football Association (FA) confirmed on Wednesday.

The clash with the five-times World Cup winners will take place at the 50,000-capacity Khalifa International Stadium and will be England’s first visit to Qatar.

England coach Fabio Capello has made a priority of organising friendlies against the world’s strongest teams in preparation for the challenge his squad will face in South Africa.

England faced Holland in Amsterdam in August and played away friendlies against Spain and Germany last season, leaving Capello keen to see what his players were capable of against South American opposition.

“To play a team like Brazil will be important for us,” 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 also 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 earlier this month enabled England to clinch their place in South Africa with two games to spare after winning 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. A further friendly has been scheduled for mid-March and there will then be two friendlies between the end of this season and the squad’s departure for South Africa.

One of those is expected to be a meeting with Japan in Austria, where England plan to have a pre-tournament training camp at altitude.

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