England will meet Andorra in their first game on 2 September this year before traveling to Macedonia four days later.

They round off 2006 with games against Macedonia and Croatia in October.

Next year England will play eight qualifying games with journeys to Israel, Andorra, Estonia and Russia.

2006

England

v

Andorra

02 Sep

Macedonia

v

England

06 Sep

England

v

Macedonia

07 Oct

Croatia

v

England

11 Oct

2007

Israel

v

England

24 Mar

Andorra

v

England

28 Mar

Estonia

v

England

06 Jun

England

v

Israel

08 Sep

England

v

Russia

12 Sep

England

v

Estonia

13 Oct

Russia

v

England

17 Oct

England

v

Croatia

21 Nov


The seven countries in Group E – England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, FYR Macedonia and Andorra met in Nyon today to determine the fixtures for the campaign. The meeting was chaired by the English FA.

FA executive director David Davies said: "Reaching agreement between seven countries was never going to be easy but it was clearly worth having a second attempt today.

"No country gets everything they want but overall we think this is a balanced schedule which will give the England team a very strong chance of qualification."

Croatia are the only team in England's group also going to the World Cup this summer. They were unbeaten and finished top of a group that contained Sweden, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Coach Zlatko Kranjcar has galvanised the team into a strong unit, but is also a proud father with son Niko one of the key members of the squad.

Finished third in their World Cup group which was something of a disappointment for Russia. Trailing Portugal was no disgrace, but they were also beaten by Slovakia. Coach Yuri Semin then stepped down in November in the wake of their failure to make it to Germany.

Israel were impressive in qualification for the World Cup Finals, even though they eventually finished third behind France and Switzerland.

Attacking midfielder Yossi Benayoun has been a consistent performer in the Premiership with West Ham this season, while Tal Ben Haim has been solid in defence for Bolton.

Estonia finished fourth in their World Cup group behind Portugal, Slovakia and Russia. Their most famous player is goalkeeper Mart Poom who is now third choice behind Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia at Arsenal, although he has also been ousted from the national team by Artur Kotenko.

Macedonia took just nine points from 12 World Cup qualifiers in a group containing Holland, Czech Republic, Romania and Finland.

The tiny mountainous nation of Andorra, nestled between France and Spain, finished bottom of the World Cup group that also included Macedonia.

They do have some of the biggest names in world football, but unfortunately for them their Ayala, Vieira and Pujol are not the ones who play for Valencia, Juventus and Barcelona.