England face tough end to qualifying

England will finish their qualifying campaign for the 2008 European Championship with tough matches against Russia and Croatia after agreeing a fixture schedule with their Group E rivals.

Officials from the English FA chaired a meeting with counterparts from Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, Macedonia and Andorra in Nyon to sort out a schedule.

It was the second such meeting and FA executive director David Davies said: "Reaching agreement between seven countries was never going to be easy."

England's first match is against rank outsiders Andorra, a match which should be the first competitive international at the new Wembley. However, their final two qualifiers are away to Russia and home to Croatia. Only the top two teams in each group qualify.

England fixtures

2006: Sept. 2 - England-Andorra. Sept. 6 - Macedonia-England. Oct. 7 - England-Macedonia. Oct. 11 -Croatia-England.

2007: Mar. 24 - Israel-England. Mar. 28 - Andorra-England. June 6 - Estonia-England. Sept. 8 - England-Israel. Sept. 12 - England-Russia. Oct. 13 - England-Estonia. Oct. 17 - Russia-England. Nov. 21 - England-Croatia.