ENGLAND will sell out Thomas Tuchel’s first game as manager at Wembley – before potentially heading to a venue they haven’t played at in over a century.
Although the World Cup 2026 qualifier against Albania is not until March 21, only a few tickets remain and they are expected to all be sold by next week.
The news underlines the popularity of England matches at Wembley, even if the opposition is not always top-level.
The Albania gate will be about 86,000.
England are also at home at Wembley three days later in a qualifier against Latvia.
Tuchel’s first away match in charge of the Three Lions will be in Andorra on June 7.
There will also be a home friendly on June 10 but it will not be at the Home of Football.
It could see Senegal play at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground- although nothing has been finalised.
German boss Tuchel was at the World Cup draw in Zurich before Christmas but he officially took over on January 1.
He has been at a string of Premier League games while he has spoken to a number of England players.
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Tuchel has also met with Lee Carsley who was interim England manager after the departure of Gareth Southgate but has now returned to the under-21s.
The 51-year-old will confirm his first Three Lions squad late next month.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Nottingham Forest owner Marinakis wants 50,000-seat City Ground ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6363734418112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]The City Ground hasn’t hosted an England international since 1909, excluding wartime games.
Forest’s home was used in Euro 1996, hosting games involving Turkey, Croatia and Portugal.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D105025%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]But it’s well over a century since England played there – a 2-0 win over Wales in the Three Lions’ 100th international.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is planning a huge overhaul of the stadium, which has been the team’s home for 126 years.
The Greek hopes to expand the City Ground’s capacity to 50,000 due to a “huge waiting list” for season-ticket holders.
Forest chief executive Tom Cartledge added: “If you add up our 20,000 season-ticket holders, plus the 21,500 or more who were waiting in a queue for tickets, the city of Nottingham should be able to sustain a 45,000 to 50,000-seat stadium.
“We can get ourselves to 40,000 and, if there was no obstruction, he [Marinakis] would get on it next season.
“He just wants to get going with it and that’s very exciting.”