England will wear their ‘lucky’ all red kit against Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

As the designated away team, it was always likely England would be forced to wear their change strip, as they did against Slovenia on Wednesday afternoon, to avoid a clash with their old rivals.

But by again electing for red shorts, as opposed to the white ones they intended to adorn in their ‘away’ strip, they can don exactly the same colours as they did in their final group match.

It is believed to be the players’ preference anyway and they have only lost once in six games wearing all red, 3-1 against Brazil in the Umbro Cup in 1995 at Wembley when Ronaldo scored his first international goal.

If the England boss is looking for good omens, coach Fabio Capello received another one as well given the final training session will take place at their Rustenburg base on Saturday.

For the second match running they have been informed the state of the pitch in Bloemfontein is not in a decent enough condition to allow either side to train on it 24 hours before the big kick-off.

Instead, former Real Madrid boss Capello will run the rule over his men much closer to home, with less chance of being spied upon, before taking the short flight south for an early evening press conference.

The pitch in Rustenburg for the final game soon cut up, with divots all over the playing area that was left looking similar to the new Wembley one.