Gareth Southgate believes his inexperienced England squad are up for the challenge of handling the quirks of playing at an empty stadium and exacting revenge against World Cup semi-final foes Croatia.

Three months after meeting at a packed Luzhniki, the nations will face one another at the empty Stadion HNK Rijeka as the hosts complete a UEFA ground ban for having a swastika on the pitch during a Euro 2016 qualifier against Italy.

Five-hundred hardy England supporters have reportedly still made the trip to Croatia in the hope of catching a glimpse of a Nations League clash that will see changes to the line-ups from their semi-final meeting.

"So it's a shame especially for our travelling fans, who were brilliant for us all summer and so many of whom haven't missed an England game for years.

"That's unfortunate for them in particular."

Press Association Sport understands players were sent footage of last year's LaLiga clash between Barcelona and Las Palmas at a deserted Nou Camp to prepare them for the mood of Friday's encounter.

Southgate smiled when asked if he had warned his players about using colourful language – "we've spent two years encouraging them to speak!" – and trusts his young players to step up to the mark against the World Cup runners-up.

"There's nobody in the squad that's here that we we're not thinking of putting into the team.

"It's not experimentation, it's players we believe in.

"Players that, OK, in a lot of cases are relatively inexperienced at the highest level, but players we've enjoyed working with, have shown in training this week that they can handle this level and we'll pick a team that we think is the best one to win the game."