FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

England’s World Cup squad looked fresh and relaxed when they flew into Nantes airport on Tuesday night en route to their training base at nearby La Baule. The England players, none of whom has played in a World Cup finals match before, must have felt very much at home as they arrived in wet and windy Nantes 30 minutes behind schedule after a behind-closed-doors friendly against French second division side Caen. Manchester United’s Paul Scholes scored the only goal in the 1-0 win and coach Glenn Hoddle, asked if the game had been a worthwhile exercise, smiled broadly and said: “Yes. Very good.”  The England players, wearing smart mustard coloured suits, walked briskly onto their team bus to avoid the rain, although Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman paused briefly to greet three supporters and raised his fist in the air.

There were only a handful of fans at the airport and they were outnumbered by police and France 98 officials. England will be based at the Golf de Saint Denac hotel outside La Baule before all of their three first-round Group G matches against Colombia, Romania and Tunisia.

Hoddle plans a training session at La Baule-Escoublac at 2:30 p.m (1230 GMT) on Wednesday afternoon but the England players are not scheduled to give a press conference until Thursday.

England, aiming to win the World Cup for the first time, do not play their opening Group G match against Tunisia in Marseille until next Monday.

With television cameras and photographers banned, the only witnesses to England’s win over Caen were some 200 local dignitaries who had been invited by the English Football Association and the small French club. In a game played in steady rain, Hoddle used around 15 of his squad players.

They included Arsenal ‘keeper David Seaman, who had sparked injury fears when he left the squad’s Buckinghamshire hotel on Tuesday morning with heavy strapping around his left thigh.

England officials said the bandages were purely precautionary to avoid the Highbury hero’s leg muscle injury being inflamed by the trip from Heathrow.

Hoddle reported no injury problems from the game and added: “It was certainly a very worthwhile exercise for us. “Some of the players had not played a match for quite a period of time and nobody has played since the game against Belgium in Morocco last Friday week.”