History shows Hodgson’s new-look Lions face tough Norway task

England (1/2 odds-on favourites) host Norway (6/1) at Wembley for their first match since their dismal showing at the World Cup in Brazil, where they lost to Italy and Uruguay, before drawing to so-called minnows Costa Rica.

Manager Roy Hodgson has been trusted to carry on, though, and has called up a relatively new-look squad that involves 16 of the 23 players who failed at the finals. The game against the Norwegians is in preparation for the Three Lions’ Euro 2016 qualifier against Switzerland on September 8th.

So low is the spirit around the country, that this friendly will be watched by the lowest capacity crowd by an international team in history (expected to be up to 40k), according to FA general secretary Alex Horne. The previous low was 48,876 in 2011 against Sweden for a friendly.

“It will be the lowest crowd we have had at Wembley and it is disappointing,” said Horne.

“We have incredibly loyal supporters – 5000 went to Brazil – and we are working hard on what we can give them to make them feel part of the England experience.”

New captain Wayne Rooney, 4/1 to open the scoring against Norway, though, said: “I still think the crowd is going to be good, round about 40k, and if you look round Europe it’s still one of the highest there is.

“Obviously it is a bit lower than normal but we expected that. The World Cup was disappointing and it’s a backlash from that. We want to make sure the crowd know we are giving everything we can to win the game tomorrow and on Monday [against Switzerland].”

Hodgson has included four new faces to the senior set-up, Jack Colback, Fabian Delph (7/1 to score anytime), Danny Rose and Calum Chambers (both 12/1), though the former has been ruled out of the match at Wembley.

The England boss has already given us an idea of who will play, saying: “All but one of the squad are fit. Colback is out of the game tomorrow (Wednesday). The starting line up will be a young one. It will contain some interesting talents and has enormous potential.

“There will be no one making their debut from the start but there will be one or two players who won’t have had many starts.”