November’s game against Scotland was always going to attract a huge crowd and 87,258 duly watched the Auld Enemy clash.
Attendances of 77,690 against Lithuania and 81.781 against Malta, however, are staggering figures in many ways, partly because international football, certainly outside of the major tournaments, is increasingly seen as a sideshow when compared to the Champions League and domestic competitions such as the Premier League and also because these matches promised little in the way of a competitive spectacle, merely two visiting teams looking to frustrate England and keep the score to a respectable level.
The last time England failed to win a home qualifying match was against Ukraine in September 2012, four victories following in that campaign and then five out of five in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
That doesn’t seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the public just yet, despite fears that the routine nature of qualifying and the lack of genuinely big games (think back to 1998 when England were paired with Italy in qualifying and 2002 when it was Germany in the same group) would make the matches a hard sell for the FA.
UEFA’s decision to centralise the schedule for qualifiers also complicates matters so England’s next two home games, against Slovakia on 4 September and Slovenia on 5 October are being played on Monday and Thursday evenings respectively.
That makes it more difficult for supporters living outside of the London area to make it to Wembley.
To be fair, England games are competitively priced and family area tickets for the Slovakia game are available for £20 Adults and £10 Under 16’s but with Wembley now paying its way for the FA the prospect of some matches being taken on the road around the country must be back on the agenda.