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England kick off their World Cup campaign with a game against the South Americans Paraguay in Frankfurt. This will be the third ever meeting between the two nations, with the English being victorious on both occasions.
Their first meeting came at Mexico 86 in the round where England romped home comfortable winners 3-0. Their most recent fixture was a friendly at Anfield in 2002 where the European team thrashed the Paraguayans 4-0
England are boosted with the news that Steven Gerrard is declared fit for the match after the Liverpool midfielder had suffered a back complaint. Michael Carrick is on stand by.
Wayne Rooney has been given the green light to play in this year’s tournament, but is nowhere near match fitness so Sven Goran Eriksson will most likely play Owen and Crouch up front after they showed good communication against Jamaica.
Paraguay will be without influential striker Jose Cardozo who was injured in a recent friendly. They have however received good news that their other star striker Roque Santa Cruz has announced he is fit to play after recovering from a troublesome knee injury.
England are renowned for being slow starters in tournaments. In the last five World Cups the English have only won two of their opening games and they were very unconvincing against Tunisia in 1998. They did however thump France 3-1 at the start of the 1982 tournament in Spain.