World Cup 2014: England begin making plans for Brazil with games against Germany and Argentina or Australia at Wembley
The matches will be viewed as ideal preparation for next summer's World Cup in Brazil
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Your support makes all the difference.England will push forward plans to stage international friendlies against Germany and Argentina as part of their World Cup preparations after securing their place at the showcase tournament in Brazil next summer.
The Football Association have been planning the build-up to the 2014 World Cup for some time now, with the hope that the Three Lions would top their qualification group and avoid the play-offs – a feat they achieved on Tuesday with the 2-0 victory over Poland.
Club England managing director Adrian Bevington confirmed earlier today that they hope to face Germany at Wembley Stadium on November 19, with another home international taking place four days earlier at the prestigious stadium.
The FA are yet to confirm who the opponents will be in the first match, though it is hoped that either Australia or Argentina will line up against Roy Hodgson’s side.
Argentina could be the visitors to London.
"We are pretty well advanced (in negotiations for the November friendlies)," Bevington said in a joint interview with the BBC and Al-Jazeera.
"I expect to be in a position in the next 24 hours to confirm one of them. I don't think it is any great secret that we are expecting to play Germany in the second of the two games next month.
"That would conclude the 150th anniversary celebrations of the FA so it would be a great way to end the year.
"We are in talks with non-European opponents at the moment with regards to the first game which would be on Friday (November 15) or Saturday (November 16), that is still to be confirmed.
"We had been looking to play Uruguay in the first game, but they are now in the play-offs so we are now speaking with other opponents.
"We expect to announce that on Thursday."
Beyond that, a meeting with Denmark is scheduled for March, with the Danes having missed out on the play-offs by the narrowest of margins as they finished as the ninth-placed runner-up, meaning that they were the side dropped from the Uefa qualifying section to make-up the final chance of qualification.
That match is also due to take place at Wembley, as will another friendly on June 7 just a week after the Champions League final. The friendly be followed by a trip to face the United States somewhere in North America, before travelling south to Miami for a pre-World Cup training camp.
England will play one final friendly in Florida before heading to Brazil, where they will set up camp at the five-star Royal Tulip Hotel on the Sao Conrado beach in Rio de Janeiro, as opposed to the Windsor Atlantica Hotel on the lively Copacabana Beach where they stayed during their international friendly there in June.
"The hotel we have earmarked is the Royal Tulip," Bevington said
"It's a bit further around from the Copacabana, but it is still pretty central."
They also trained at the World Cup-purpose built Urca military base, and Bevington hopes that the visit earlier this year – in which servicemen were allowed to observe training sessions – will allow them to resume their short-term residency there.
"The organising committee in Brazil have contracted the Urca base (as a training base for the tournament)," Bevington added.
"We were the first team so that was our first option, and we are expecting that to be our training ground."
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