Saturday’s Andorra vs England clash will go on -UEFA

England’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra on Saturday will go ahead as planned despite a spectacular fire at the principality’s National Stadium on Friday, UEFA has confirmed.

A thick plume of black smoke drifted towards the nearby flats and residential accommodation behind the stand as first stadium employees and then the fire brigade worked to put the fire out.

When the smoke cleared, it was apparent damage had been done to the gantry and VAR monitors as well as one of the dugouts and a small section of the 3G pitch.

Although there was initial doubt whether the game would be allowed to go ahead, Andorra’s Football Federation said the match would be unaffected and that position was confirmed by UEFA on Friday evening.

Replacement VAR equipment is already on-site in Andorra La Vella and a structural engineer is heading to the principality to assess the state of the broadcast gantry.

Officials are satisfied there are other areas inside the 3,300 capacity ground suitable for cameras if the main gantry cannot be used.

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Andorra’s players made use of the majority of the pitch for their own training session, which took place a couple of hours after the fire had shocked those on site.

The clean-up was underway while Andorra trained and the small section of damaged pitch will be replaced before Saturday’s 7:45pm kick-off.

England had trained in the morning and the fire happened just after Gareth Southgate and Saturday’s captain Kieran Trippier spoke to the media.