England players gripped as Neymar inspires Brazil to victory...

Football fans from Brazil to Bangkok were glued to their TV sets to watch the opening match of the World Cup on Thursday evening - and England's players were no different.

As Brazil and Croatia got this carnival of football started, Roy Hodgson's players were as gripped as the rest of the nation - and, indeed, the world.

The squad and backroom staff gathered around what appeared to be a relatively small TV to watch Neymar inspire the World Cup hosts to a 3-1 win.

Watching brief: Englands' players and staff gather round to see Brazil beat Croatia 3-1

Keeping an eye on things: Ben Foster took to Twitter to post this picture of the England squad

And keeper Ben Foster took to Twitter to prove that England's multi-millionaires are at heart just football fans like the rest of us. While another photo from a different angle was posted on England's official Instagram account.

Should Roy's boys perform at their best, then they could set up a potential quarter-final meeting with Brazil, so you would expect that they were watching that extra bit closely to look for potential weaknesses in the World Cup favourites.

Lighting up the sky: a cartoon Wayne Rooney is beamed on to the Broadsgate Tower in London

Meanwhile, Rooney felt the eyes of a nation watching him from home as a large-scale digital projection of the England striker was beamed in London.

The giant image, plastered across Broadgate Tower in the City of London, shows Rooney's character as he appears in Nike's five-minute animated feature, 'The Last Game' which launched earlier this week.

The 28-year-old's character is shown performing a phenomenal bicycle kick and is accompanied by the sign-off 'Pressure Shapes Legends' as part of England's sponsors' 'Risk Everything' campaign.