Fabio Capello’s men kick off their campaign for South Africa 2010 in Barcelona this evening hoping for a vast improvement upon their last encounter with Andorra, both on and off the pitch.
The under Steve McClaren’s charge, it took a desperate second-half rally from Steven Gerrard to lift the Three Lions to a 3-0 victory during EURO 2008 qualifying.
But the headlines were made in the stands of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys,where thousands of disgruntled supporters lashed out at the underperforming England players.
Terry sympathises with the fans, but he hopes they will come together and stand firm behind their team this time around.
“We understand their frustration and disappointment,” the Chelsea defender told The Times. “We know as a group of players that we’ve underachieved in the last couple of years and we want to put that right as much as anyone else, but we need the whole country behind us.
“We understand their frustration at times, but I’d ask them to stick with us, even if it’s 20 or 30 minutes into the game and it’s still 0-0. We really do need them because, when they’re on our side, they are the best in the world.
“We have to earn that support and that comes from us playing well, putting in the performances and getting the results on the pitch. We need to turn the fans around maybe.”
Andorra, ranked 186th in the world by FIFA, are renowned for their lack of on-field discipline. Indeed, they received more bookings during the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign than any other nation.
It was the Pyrenees principality’s ultra-physical approach that caused England problems a year ago, and Terry is counting on his side’s greater technical skills to shine through.
“We all expect us to win tomorrow night, but we also know it’s going to be difficult,” he said.
“They’ll come out and try and make it very physical again for us, so we may need an early goal to knock them back a little bit and force them out, because they do play with ten men behind the ball. Literally.”
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