England will play New Zealand and Costa Rica in Florida as final World Cup warm-ups, with venues in Tampa, Miami or Orlando to help acclimatise to the heat

ENGLAND will face New Zealand and Costa Rica in Florida friendlies in their final preparations for the World Cup in June.

Thomas Tuchel’s men will take on New Zealand on June 6 before facing Costa Rica four days later.

Venues for both matches are yet to be confirmed but will reportedly be in Tampa, Miami or Orlando.

This is to allow the squad to acclimatise to what are expected to be sweltering conditions.

England will then head to Kansas City, where they will be based at the Soccer Swope Village for the duration of the tournament.

The Missouri city was the English Football Association’s preferred location.

This is despite two of their group games and several potential knockout matches being on the east coast of the United States.

England begin their quest for a first major tournament win since 1966 against Croatia in Dallas on June 17.

The side ranked fourth in the world then face Ghana in Boston and Panama in New Jersey.

After qualifying with a perfect record of eight wins from eight games without conceding a goal, England face Uruguay and Japan in friendlies on home soil next month.

 The Sun Malaysia