Eric Dier tells England fans to pack their bags and head to Moscow ahead of clash with Croatia

Supermarket sweepers: Raheem Sterling, Eric Dier and Fabian Delph after visiting the 24 hour store near their hotel in Repino. They bought biscuits and shower gel.

England hero Eric Dier today urged more fans to fly to Moscow to roar on the Three Lions at Wednesday night’s semi-final showdown with Croatia.

The Spurs defender — who secured England’s progress from the first knock-out round with a nerveless penalty against Colombia — said he welcomed the prospect of the team getting more backing from the stands.

“I would love for more fans to fly out and support us. I can only recommend Russia as a place to come,” he added.

“It’s been fantastic so far, the tournament, the organisation has been great. The fans that have been here have seen that. I hope supporters will come out here and see the same thing.”

He spoke as he headed to a supermarket with team-mates Raheem Sterling Fabian Delph and Dele Alli to stock up on essentials such as shower gel — and Oreo biscuits.

Only 2,500 England fans were in Samara to watch the quarter-final win against Sweden, which was 500 fewer than at the dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia — when South American supporters turned the stadium yellow.

But today determined England fans were heeding Dier’s call in a scramble to get to the Russian capital to see England’s first World Cup semi-final for 28 years.

Official tickets cost between £215 and £565, and although none appeared to be available online this morning, more could be released as returns come in. Fifa unexpectedly issued a block of 2,000 on Thursday night, some 36 hours before Saturday’s Sweden match.

England fans celebrate World Cup quarter-final victory

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Gary Moran, 37, a landscape gardener from Brighton, attended the games in Volgograd and Kaliningrad and managed to get an official ticket yesterday for around £350. He is flying to Moscow tomorrow via Portugal and will arrive on the morning of the Croatia game. He said: “I didn’t think I would be able to do it. I kept checking the Fifa website and then some tickets appeared. I got on it at the right time.

“I’m meeting another England fan, getting some beers and then heading to the game. The flight back is at 1.30am Thursday morning via Barcelona and landing in London at 8.30am.

“Then it’s straight back to work. I had to do it. It’s the semi-final. The last time we got this far I was aged 10 and it got me into football. I’ve never seen the country so happy.” Dan Stephenson, 30, from Newcastle, was today travelling from Samara to Moscow on a sleeper train expected to take 16 hours. He paid £50 for the train journey and a further £20 for two nights for a bed in a “rabbit hutch” at the Buran Capsule Hotel, near the main Nikolskaya Street.

WAGs at England vs Sweden Quarter Final

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Mr Stephenson, who works in security on cargo ships off the Somalian coast and has been in Russia since the first group game, said: “It looks like a bed inserted into a test tube. It’s madness.”

Meanwhile the last remaining tickets advertised on secondary websites have soared in price. One website was offering category two tickets for the 80,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium at £1,765 and category three seats at £1,590.

The face value of category two tickets is £363 and category three £215. However VIP hospitality packages are being advertised for as much as £16,690.

Touts had expected to fare better but one told the Evening Standard that many without specific high-level clients “had caught a cold”. “The margins just have not been big enough for the guys who operate on the streets,” he said.

“But now I do expect a lot of the higher-end fans, who want to see England in a World Cup semi-final for the first time in a generation, to come.”

The tout, who was from London, said he believed that as many as 10,000 England fans would spend “large” to see the semi-final and a potential first World Cup final since 1966.

Nerveless: Eric Dier (REUTERS)
Reuters

England stars spent time taking selfies with fans during the visit to the supermarket. Alli, Sterling, Dier and Delph were mobbed on the short stroll to the 24-hour store near their hotel in Repino yesterday afternoon.

They were in good spirits as they left the ForRestMix hotel compound with a low-key two man security team.

Sterling filled up a trolley with home comforts including the Oreo biscuits for the rest of the squad as they spent more than 20 minutes browsing the aisles. Delph was seen shopping for shower gel.

Supermarket worker Anna said: “They were very nice and very polite. They took photographs and behaved very well. People were very excited they were here.”

Word spread that the semi-finalists were at the supermarket and scores of locals begged for photographs.

Matvey Notkin’s 12-year-old brother Ilya was one of those lucky enough to secure a selfie with three of the stars.

He told the Standard: “My brother was very excited. He got pics with Sterling Dier and Alli. They were smiley.”

It came as Southgate’s squad was given the day off to rest after the win against Sweden in Samara. They trained this morning behind closed doors before a flight to Moscow tomorrow.

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