Shropshire supermarkets were today gearing up for a stampede from football fans who are expected to clear the shelves of beer and barbecues ahead of England’s vital World Cup clash with Germany.

The nation is expected to come to a standstill tomorrow afternoon with a television audience of more than 25 million people expected to tune in to watch the match – the biggest in the last 10 years.

Ahead of the game, store bosses across the county are reporting massive sales of lager and wines as well as fresh bread rolls, burgers and instant barbecues.

John Edwards, duty manager at Tesco in Ludlow, said the Mediterranean-style sunshine was already bringing shoppers out.

He said: “We are certainly selling a lot of alcohol, particularly lagers and the stands we are putting out are getting hit pretty hard every day. We have got a couple of pallets of charcoal briquettes and instant barbecues but we have only got a few left.”

Andrew Perkins, store manager at Asda in Shrewsbury, said sales of beer and barbecue food have been “fantastic” over the past week as have sales of England merchandise since the World Cup started.

He said: “We are expecting huge sales of beer, beef burgers and bread rolls tomorrow so we have got extra in. Obviously we expect it to go very quiet after lunchtime.”

Mark Hastings, manager at Tesco in Wrekin Retail Park, Telford, said: “This is one of the biggest party weekends I have seen for a couple of years. We have the World Cup, tennis, Grand Prix and the cricket so we have sold a lot of barbecues, wines and spirits.”

England fans were flooding into Bloemfontein today ahead of the team’s clash with Germany — hoping the team can win without the nail-biting tension of a penalty shootout.

Shropshire fan Kevin Richards, 45, who is in South Africa supporting England, said fans are “glad” the country will play Germany.

He said: “People believe that if we can stick with the same team we played against Slovenia we stand a very good chance.”