England’s players are due to arrive in Rome imminently, ahead of their Euro 2020 quarter-final clash with Ukraine.
After playing their first four games of the tournament at Wembley, the Three Lions will have to play in unfamiliar surroundings at the Stadio Olimpico.
Gareth Southgate’s side booked their place in the last eight with an historic 2-0 win over Germany, thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.
Ukraine meanwhile have reached this stage for the first time in their history after overcoming Sweden in extra-time at Hampden Park.
After completing a final training session at St George's Park on Friday morning, the squad boarded a flight from Birmingham and are set to arrive in Italy shortly.
England are the overwhelming favourites to book their place in the semi-final, but Southgate has warned his side against any complacency.
"This is now a fantastic challenge for us," Southgate told England’s official podcast earlier this week.
"We've got to go away from Wembley, into a potentially quite hot climate, hardly any England fans in the stadium, and maybe a not particularly full crowd full stop.
"The players knew, individually, so many of the German players and their direct attributes, [with Ukraine] we are having to learn a lot more quickly.
"We have watched Ukraine over the last year or so but of course not many of them are playing in the Bundesliga or the English Premier League. There's obviously a couple who are.
"And then there is this perception that all we've got to do is turn up, and we are on our way. We're very clear now that the total focus is on Saturday.
"We have to prepare the game in the right way, and our mentality is critical."
England skipper Kane, who finally broke his Euros duck last time out has also warned his teammates they will need to be at their best to come out on top against Andriy Shevchenko’s men.
“Ukraine had a huge high, scoring in injury-time, so I’m sure they’ll be buzzing today and I’m sure they’ll take that into the game on Saturday,” he said on Wednesday.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re ready for everyone, their greatest strength is our team unity and we need to be ready.
“We know if we play to our highest abilities, we should have enough to win the game. But it’s knockout football, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.”
As for the potentially sparsely populated stadium they will encounter, Kane has promised they will be the ones to force the issue and make some noise.
He continued: “Of course we won’t have the same energy inside the stadium like we did at Wembley, but that’s something we’ve got used to playing at club level for the last couple of years.
“It’s about creating that environment ourselves, creating the energy ourselves on the pitch, whether that’s talking or pressing or being calm on the ball.
“We’re going to have to manage that ourselves, hopefully there’s a few fans that make it out there.
“We’ll do everything we can to make it a good night for everyone.”
England kick-off against Ukraine at 20:00 on Saturday night, with the game screened live on BBC One.
