England set WC qualifiers

Three Lions begin campaign in Moldova

Last Updated: November 24, 2011 8:02am

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Fabio Capello: Italian's successor has favourable start to 2014 World Cup qualifiers

Sky Bet

England will kick off their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign against Moldova, while Fabio Capello's successor will have the luxury of not having to play any fixtures in June.

The Football Association sent a four-strong delegation to Warsaw on Wednesday morning and they spent just over an hour devising a fixture list for Group H that worked out very favourably for England.

Crucially for England, they will not play any matches in June, which is traditionally when their players are most tired after a draining league campaign.

England's World Cup 2014 qualifiers


2012
September 7: Moldova (away)
September 11: Ukraine (home)
October 12: San Marino (home)
October 16: Poland (away)
2013
March 22: San Marino (away)
March 26: Montenegro (away)
September 6: Moldova (home)
September 10: Ukraine (away)
October 11: Montenegro (home)
October 15: Poland (home)

Agreement

Two of England's opening five games will be against San Marino, in a group which also contains Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland and Ukraine as well as Montenegro.

Club England manager Adrian Bevington led the delegation and his delight at the outcome was obvious.

"We are very pleased to have reached an agreement so quickly today," he said.

Organised

"It was important for us to avoid dates in June. We have managed to agree fixtures similar to those we set out to achieve.

"There was good co-operation in the room and Poland organised the event extremely well."

The news of the fixtures is the second bit of good news for England on Wednesday after the latest FIFA rankings showed they have moved up two places from seventh to fifth.