Jose Mourinho predicts every World Cup 2018 Group Winner HERE for the latest MUFC breaking news and transfer updates SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign upfor the latest MUFC breaking news and transfer updates When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. England’s World Cup campaign kicks off a little more than a week from now, with the Three Lions taking on Costa Rica in the last pre-tournament friendly tonight. England football team will take one of the youngest squads they have ever had to the Russia World Cup 2018, with the average age of the team just 26 years old. England faces a mixed group against Tunisia, Panama and Belgium this year, with fans hoping the team will reach the knockout stages at the very least. 32 teams are preparing to play the first game in the international tournament across 64 games across Russia, with the opening ceremony kicking off proceedings in Moscow on Wednesday. When is England’s first World Cup game? The Three Lions take on their first group stage opponents, Tunisia, on Monday, June 18 at 7pm. Tunisia is currently 500/1 to win the Russia World Cup 2018, according to OddsChecker. Despite the long odds, England fans should not underestimate the minnow nation, who could pose a tricky threat in the early stages of the tournament. Gareth Southgate has been whipping his team into shape this week with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica. but who knows what will happen once the action begins. World Cup 2018 England fixtures: When is England's first game? When is England playing? Nerves will likely be fraught as the young England squad takes centre stage, and a draw is certainly a possibility. Premier League fans may recognise Wahbi Khazri, who had a spell at Sunderland two seasons ago. Khazri scored a wonder goal that netted him the Match of the Day goal of the season, though it is doubtful he will recreate this spectacle in the World Cup. England’s game against Tunisia will be broadcast live on the BBC at 7pm on June 18, as the Three Lions begin their campaign for World Cup glory. World Cup 2018 odds: Who are favourites to win in Russia? Thu, June 7, 2018 Express Sport takes a look at every team's chances of winning the 2018 World Cup in Russia Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 32 Panama – 1000/1 England face Tunisia in their first game of the World Cup 2018 What are England’s World Cup Fixtures? Gareth Southgate and his team will have to navigate a deceptively tricky group in order to progress to the Round of 16. After Tunisia, England faces a minnow nation that should pose no problem for them, in Panama, on June 24 at 1pm. Panama is embarking on their first World Cup tournament and is out at 1000/1 to lift the World Cup trophy in July. They have the oldest squad in the whole tournament and are unlike to play expansive, ambitious football during their campaign, which can be watched live on BBC. Harry Kane will captain the England team through the World Cup<doc-sep>Outside Elland Road on Thursday night there was little to suggest excitement levels for Russia 2018 are lower than before any major tournament over the past two decades. An hour after the final whistle England’s players began to leave the Bremner Suite with their families to spend their final days at home before flying to Russia for five weeks, if we allow ourselves to imagine a final in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on 15 July. They emerged to screaming fans, from teenagers to pensioners, some clambering up stairs to get a better view. Harry Kane received the loudest cheers as he happily signed shirts and flags. Marcus Rashford did not stop for supporters but his strike from 30 yards against Costa Rica will be ingrained in their memories. This is not a golden generation of England players yet but there is a sense they offer something different and a willingness to interact with the public and media over the past fortnight means Gareth Southgate’s squad depart with no shortage of goodwill. In selecting a youthful and inexperienced World Cup party, with an average age of 26 years and 18 days on the opening game against Tunisia on 18 June, Southgate has, intentionally or otherwise, wiped the slate clean. Few of them were involved in the scarring collapse against Iceland at Euro 2016 or the World Cup squads that limply surrendered to Germany in 2010 and failed to get out of the group in Brazil in 2014. The toxicity has also been stripped away. The approach to this tournament has included Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand talk of a divisiveness in the England camp under past regimes, but there was an air of togetherness at St George’s Park in Staffordshire where they completed their preparations. Fabian Delph talked animatedly about team-bonding exercises, revealing who is king of table tennis (Raheem Sterling) and pool (himself). It was a marked contrast to Joe Hart’s steadfast refusal to divulge any details about a darts competition before Euro 2016. A layer of suspicion and fear has been dissolved and that freedom is being reflected in the way they are playing. “I’m not getting carried away about how far this team can get but the performances in the warm-up game, particularly against Costa Rica were encouraging,” Kevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters Federation, said. “From people I speak to, we like the lack of assumption in the team, the lack of ego and the lack of cliques.” England will stay in the seaside town of Repino on the Gulf of Finland. Aside from the challenge of acclimatising to Volgograd, the venue for their first game that will be at least 10F warmer, they may have to contend with the tedium of a town without a wealth of attractions. But Gary Lineker, who will anchor the BBC’s coverage in Russia, does not buy into that. “Sometimes we get a little bit distracted by excuses,” he said. “I’ve heard before: ‘Oh they’re really bored before a World Cup’. Come on. Get real. You’re in a nice hotel, you’ve got box sets and PlayStations, computers in your pocket, telephones. When I played in Mexico in 1986 we were allowed one phone call home a week. You had to make your own entertainment. Yes, it’s boring at times but once you start winning it’s less boring. It’s funny that.” Away from the England bubble, attention will fall on the altogether more serious problems facing this World Cup, some of which could not have been envisaged when Russia was picked as host on a dramatic evening eight years ago. It is among the most politically charged sporting events in history – and the landscape is ever changing. In January, a delegation from the FA, the national police chiefs’ council, the Home Office and the Football Supporters Federation went on a reconnaissance mission to the country, visiting the group stage venues with consular staff from the British embassy. World Cup Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email They were reassured that the Russian police were committed to ensuring fan safety. But by the time the FA returned in April to inspect the locations where England could play in the knockout stages, the consular staff had been deported. The expulsion of 23 diplomats was a result of rising tensions between Russia and Britain after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Last month, the head of MI5 said Russia was responsible for undermining European democracies. So it is understandable there should be nervousness around security for travelling fans and the team. That is not forgetting the vicious attacks by Russian hooligans on English fans in Marseille during Euro 2016. There have been suggestions that this is partly the reason behind the relatively low number of English fans travelling. Fewer than 10,000 supporters are expected in Russia and the only match for which the FA have sold all of their allocation is the final group game against Belgium in Kaliningrad. Miles thinks there are multiple factors at play. “Marseille has left its mark on some,” he said, “But we had scare stories before Ukraine about gangs of racist hooligans which never materialised. The key issue is it’s not known as a holiday destination. The riverfront in Volgograd isn’t Copacabana beach. There’s not an appetite for people to spend a family holiday there, then you’ve got the distances required to travel between venues and the cost of hotels because there aren’t very many.” The last sporting event anywhere close to this size held in Russia was the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, which have since been revealed to have been corrupted by state-sponsored doping. Fifa have promised the drugs tests taken in Russia will be immediately removed from the country and sent to a laboratory in Switzerland. With 2.5 million tickets on sale for 64 games in 12 stadiums and 11 cities the World Cup is a different beast. Vladimir Putin’s hope when his country applied to be hosts was presumably to showcase Russia’s might to the west. Now the main aim surely is to repair an image damaged by wars in Syria and Ukraine and a hacking scandal. The understanding from the British security services is that he does not want the World Cup to be undermined by troublemakers. “The Russians know they are being judged on hospitality and not how hard they are,” Miles said. “We have to take the police on their word and they have told us they are going to keep fans safe. Once the Fifa roadshow rolls into town you know what to expect. The stadiums, fan zones and the way the city centres get dressed are similar for every tournament. It’s only beyond that that you see the different characteristics of the nation.” Russian riot police take part in special security exercises at the Saint-Petersburg Stadium. Photograph: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images A Foreign Affairs Committee report published this week said non-match days and cities where England are not playing are major concerns, as is the welfare of BAME and LGBT fans. Gay supporters have been warned not to hold hands in public. Some of the England players, including Danny Rose, have expressed fears for their families if they were to travel. It has led some to question the wisdom of holding the tournament in Russia. Lineker has cautioned against using a broad brush to dismiss the suitability of Russia as a host country. “There’s been stuff before every World Cup I’ve ever been to,” he told the Observer. “In Brazil, there were massive demonstrations about stadium spending and public life. You can start being judgmental on this country or that country but we need to get our own house in order and how corrupt certain aspects of our lives are. “Come the start of the World Cup it’s always the same, once it starts it’s football and that’s all anyone cares about. I sense it will be all right. “Hopefully, English fans will keep out of trouble. It’s easy to blame wherever we go but there has generally been one common denominator over many World Cups which has depressed me for 30 years. The massive majority of people just there to enjoy the football.” It is to be hoped that this World Cup is remembered for the football, for an England side that was likable for once, and not events off the pitch.<doc-sep>
England boss Southgate has called racism "completely unacceptable" and says his team has a plan in place if his players suffer abuse at the World Cup in Russia. Danny Rose revealed earlier this week that his family will not travel to Russia for the tournament over fears they would be subject to abuse. FIFA fined Russia's football union £22,000 for racist chanting aimed at France players during a game in March, and Rose himself has been the target of abuse while on England U21 duty in Serbia in October 2012. Southgate insists his side will not walk off the pitch if any of the England players are racially abused during the tournament, and says the team will know how to conduct themselves should such an incident occur in Russia. "It's completely unacceptable," said Southgate, "People in an idealistic world will say 'you should do that' but it seems the realities of that are you'd be thrown out of the tournament and some people will say we should do that. "I don't think the players want that in actual fact. They've worked all their lives to get to a World Cup. So the idea is that we're able to raise the issues, confront the issues, but they want to play in the tournament. "It's a very difficult and delicate balance for us to get right. "One of the things we mentioned is that for all of the players, a lot of them have children, and I'm the same, and our kids don't think anything of who they talk to, who they sit with, how they interact with people of all race, colour, religion. "They are born into this world with no prejudice at all. It's only as people force their own opinions and insights and education on them that they might alter those opinions. 4:04 Gareth Southgate says England have a plan in place if players are racially abused at the World Cup, insisting it is unlikely any of the team would walk off the pitch "So we're victims in this world of prejudices - thinking that comes from others - and that's very sad. Because there's no way that people should be treated differently because of the colour of their skin or the religion that they believe in. "You treat people as individuals and you treat them respectfully at all times. "The players know my thinking. Clearly, within football, the landscape has changed enormously in the 25-30 years I've been involved in the game. It's not perfect, but huge strides have been made so we can make some differences through football. "We can't affect everything, because most problems are societal and football ends up being a reflection of society. But the point I make to the players - and I know Danny in his quote has said 'we can't change the world' - but maybe we can have a small impact by the way that we conduct ourselves."