English team face Wembley wrath against Kazakhstan

England will be looking to build on the progress they made in their 4-1 win over Croatia in last month’s world cup qualifier when they take on Kazakhstan at Wembley on Saturday.

The convincing performance in Zagreb has put pressure on England to dispose of their lowly Eastern European opponents with ease, and there is every chance that a failure to score early in the game could lead to pressure being put on the English team by an expectant crowd.

“I love playing at Wembley,” England defender Rio Ferdinand was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. “But maybe the fans do get a bit agitated if we don’t score inside the first 20 minutes. If it is a real cauldron, like it is in Zagreb, that helps. No one enjoys facing 90,000.”

Despite the fact that the English team has won the balance of its games at Wembley since the stadium reopened, a series of uninspiring performances against lower ranked teams has seen the crowd turn on their team on several occasions.

“Fans react to how the players are playing,” midfielder Frank Lampard said of the Wembley crowd. “With the Croatia game we showed a work ethic and a team ethic and a lot of people responded to it. We don’t want to get carried away with ourselves but when fans see that and hopefully see it at Wembley on Saturday, you get a different response out there.”