Colchester sell-out for Under-21s
Tuesday, 18 October, 2011
10,000 fans secure tickets for Euro 2013 Qualifier with Iceland.
England Under-21s will play in front of a full-house when they take on Iceland at Colchester United’s 10,000-capacity Weston Homes Community Stadium next month.
Tickets are now sold out for the match on Thursday 10 November (7.30pm ko), which will be the Three Lions’ latest Euro 2013 Qualifier as they look to reach the Finals, hosted in Israel, for the fourth time in succession.
England have a good record in Colchester. Stuart Pearce’s side clinched a place in the play-offs for the 2011 Finals with a 3-0 victory over Lithuania last September before a crowd of 7,240, while the U19s beat Germany 1-0 in a 2008 friendly with another sell-out crowd cheering them on.
And it won’t be the first visit to the impressive Weston Homes Community Stadium for Iceland either after their senior women’s team faced England in a Euro 2009 warm-up match and won 2-0.
Pearce, though, will be hoping the crowd can get behind his young team as they look for a second win in a month over their Icelandic rivals and to maintain their 100% record so far in qualifying.
A hat-trick from Arsenal winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain helped England take a 3-0 win from their visit to Reykjavik earlier this month, and added to success in Norway four days later and a 6-0 home win over Azerbaijan in September, England will arrive in Essex three points clear at the top of Group 8.
“It’s great to see we’ll be playing at Colchester in front of a full-house,” said Pearce. “We enjoyed our last visit there a year ago, winning 3-0 against Lithuania, so we’d be pleased for a similar outcome this time around to send the supporters home happy afterwards.
“Our two away wins in Iceland and Norway earlier this month have put us is a good position in the group. There is plenty of work to do yet, but we’ll keep building and hopefully when we meet Iceland again in Colchester, the sell-out crowd will be right behind us to give the players an extra lift.”
The match will also be broadcast live on ESPN.
To follow England Under-21s throughout their Euro 2013 qualification campaign, log on to TheFA.com, follow at www.twitter.com/thefadotcom or like at www.facebook.com/EnglandU21s