The Guardian/London


England will be at pains to show their solidarity with the French team in their friendly today night with the captain Wayne Rooney insisting: “All the players will give everything they can to make France proud.”
Rooney said he had spoken to team-mates involved in the France-Germany friendly on Friday night at which suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France and said the England players offered their condolences to the French “at an incredibly sad time”.
The Marseille midfielder Lassana Diarra lost a cousin during the terrorist attacks in Paris while his France teammate, the Atlético Madrid winger Antoine Griezmann, said that his sister had escaped the attack at the Bataclan concert hall which left at least 87 people dead.
“We have to be as respectful as we can,” said Rooney in sentiments echoed by the England coach Roy Hodgson, who said: “I believe that tomorrow night it’s going to be more about us showing solidarity rather than what necessarily happens on the field.”
Hodgson was conscious of the symbolic element of the fixture, adding: “There’s something hanging over the game that’s far greater than a football game and a football result.”
There are plans at Wembley for England supporters to join in with the French national anthem in respect to those who lost their lives in Paris attacks and they intend to hold up cards to create a French Tricolor. Both teams will wear black armbands and the match will be preceded by a minute’s silence.
The Football Association’s chief executive Martin Glenn has urged supporters to arrive early for the tributes, saying: “The match starts at five to eight, not eight o’clock. We want to demonstrate our solidarity, our country’s solidarity with France.” Asked about his personal safety, Rooney said England were putting their trust in the security services to ensure their safety at Wembley.
“When you see footage of what happened it’s sickening and in terms of going on the pitch we can only go on knowing the security checks have been made and it’s safe.
“Obviously you never know what can happen but we assume we’re safe on the pitch and we don’t get a repeat of what happened on Friday night,” he said.
Hodgson promised a young and experimental side, calling up Spurs’ 24-year-old Ryan Mason to help bolster his midfield options.