An increasingly agitated Hodgson then criticised UEFA for their scheduling of the competition.

“In World Cup years it is a tremendous burden on the senior teams from countries like England, Spain, Italy and Germany to have to play third qualifying round matches on July 29 when players haven’t returned from holiday a week later,” he said.

“Everybody, most of all UEFA, knows you can’t bring people off the beach, give them three days training and throw them into a first-class game. We have had no choice to do that. So the team that plays on Thursday will be different to that that starts the Premier League season against Arsenal.”

Hodgson expects a testing encounter against Rabotnicki, who finished second in the Macedonian domestic league last season and defeated Armenian side Mika in the previous round.

“Rabotnicki have had a lot of experience in European football as they play every year at some level,” he said. “And we are expecting a tough game for a team who this game will be very important. They will be doing their very best to beat us.”

Tonight’s game – for which only 43 tickets have been sold by Liverpool – takes place at the Philip II Stadium in Skopje, which is only halfway through a reconstruction programme with this evening marking the official opening of the north stand and the first use of the floodlights.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are waiting to find out if their attempt to bring Luke Young to Anfield has proven successful after Aston Villa accepted a £2.5million bid for the 31-year-old full-back.

Young travelled with the Villa squad to Portugal for a friendly yesterday, and despite initial hopes that a move to Merseyside would materialise the deal is now unlikely to go through.

TONIGHT’S officials are from Italy, with Antonio Damato the referee.