Swede dreams
Jubilant players and WAGs determined it is coming home Britain stocks up on BBQ supplies for super Saturday
WORLD Cup fever is sweeping the nation ahead of England’s quarterfinal clash with Sweden as fans, WAGs and players are all convinced football is “coming home”.
And after the dramatic win against Colombia, shops are braced for a rush on barbecue food for Saturday’s match.
Viewing figures yesterday confirmed Tuesday’s nail-biting penalty shootout was the most-watched five minutes of TV in the past five years.
Eric Dier, whose kick secured England’s victory, said: “We have made history, which is amazing, but we want to keep on making history.
“With a last-minute winner or a penalty shootout, there is so much more emotion and adrenaline.”
The 24-year-old added: “We have seen the scenes of celebration back home and it is an incredible feeling... to see the joy that we give [ fans].”
Rebekah Vardy, wife of striker Jamie, was also buoyed by the victory. Asked if England could win the World Cup, she said: “Absolutely, it’s coming home.” As our heroes had a well-deserved day off, the mum of four, 36, told how the players’ partners enjoyed the euphoria at Spartak stadium in Moscow.
She told ITV’s Loose Women yesterday: “We got covered in beer, all sorts thrown over us in the crowd.
“But what an absolutely amazing experience. The atmosphere was incredible, we were with a lot of the England fans where we were sitting, they were all singing, all cheering.”
There were further celebrations after midfielder Fabian Delph’s wife Natalie gave birth to their third daughter yesterday. Delph, 28, had gone home to be with her, but is due back in Russia in time for Saturday’s match.
The rest of the squad got to their HQ in Repino at around 5am yesterday. Subs including penalty hero Marcus Rashford had a warmdown at the nearby training camp. Others who played had the day off.
Vardy, Dele Alli and Ashley Young will be assessed after picking up knocks. ITV said the match was watched by an average 16.5 million people, peaking at 24.4 million.
Four in five people watching TV in the UK tuned in to it, including David Beckham, who hosted a viewing party.
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and his wife Sally shared snaps of their celebrations, as did singer Robbie Williams. Some 5,000 England fans are expected in Samara, an hour-and-a-half flight from Moscow, for Saturday’s game. FIFA has warned fans may be denied stadium entry if they buy tickets from secondary sites which do not match their Fan ID. At home, demand for food and drink for the 3pm kick-off is to soar by nearly 2,000%, Asda predicted. The supermarket expects to shift three million litres of beer, 8.5 million bangers, 500,000 Swedish meatballs and a million kilograms of charcoal by Saturday. Tesco, braced for demand for four million burgers and a million bottles of wine, said the good weather and tournament were “creating a real carnival atmosphere”. This has given a £382million boost to the economy so far, Centre for Retail Research and website VoucherCodes said, with a place in the final worth an extra £2.7billion to the high street.