Steve McClaren

England will play a crucial Euro 2008 qualifying tie on a plastic pitch after the Russian Football Union on Wednesday confirmed that Moscow’s Luzhniki Olympic Stadium would stage the countries’ group E match on October 17.

The prospect of Steve McClaren’s side playing such a key qualifier on an unfamiliar surface will mean special preparations for his team.

The Football Association (FA) responded by accepting the decision and promising to prepare “accordingly” ahead of a game which could be key to determining whether England qualify for the finals.

A spokesman for the FA said: “We have experts at the FA who are looking into this and they will find an identical surface to train on in England.”

Initially, the Russians included the 30,000-seat Lokomotiv arena as a possible venue before deciding on the 84,000-seat Luzhniki.

The stadium will stage next year’s Champions League final — but by then a grass pitch will have been laid.

A Russia Football Union (RFU) spokesman said: “Guus Hiddink, our coach, also wanted the England match to be played on natural grass but I don’t think it would be possible to lay out the grass turf in time for the game.”

The stadium, home to Torpedo Moscow, installed a Uefa and the Fifa-approved FieldTurf system in 2002 to cope with the freezing winter.

Before the game in Moscow, the teams meet at Wembley, on September 12. Croatia lead group E with 17 points from seven matches, with Russia in third on 15 and England in fourth, a point behind.