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Excitement building in Russia

Moscow is braced for "its biggest game in over a decade" after the final tickets were sold today for next week's UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifier against England.

Thousands of fans stood in rain for more than five hours on Monday to buy tickets for next week's UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifier between Russia and England.

Unprecedented demand
The demand for tickets has been unprecedented, with the Football Union of Russia (RFS) receiving more than half a million requests for the 17 October encounter in Moscow that is likely to decide the outcome of a tight Group E. Because of security arrangements, only 74,000 seats have been made available at the 84,000 Luzhniki Stadium - which will also stage next May's UEFA Champions League final.

'Biggest game'
Around 6,500 tickets went on sale on Monday, and some 70,000 people lined the 1.5km route from the nearest subway station to Luzhniki. A spokesman for the RFS said: "This will be the biggest game Moscow has seen in over a decade. Much bigger than [the 1998 FIFA World Cup play-off] against Italy or [the UEFA EURO 2000™ qualifier] against Ukraine."

Advantage England
England, on 20 points, leapfrogged Russia (18 points) into second place behind pacesetters Croatia (23) after beating them 3-0 at Wembley last month.

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