FA website crashes before Lionesses v USA at Wembley sells out in 24 hours

• Game scheduled for 7 October if England qualify for World Cup
• All available general admission tickets now sold out

An unprecedented demand for tickets to watch England play USA at Wembley in October led to the Football Association's website crashing on Tuesday and fans being held in queues online of more than 45,000 people. By Wednesday lunchtime, all available general admission tickets were sold out, with just hospitality options still on sale.

The FA announced at 2pm that England, the newly crowned European champions, were in line to host the USA, the World Cup holders, on 7 October. It prompted a surge to buy tickets and supporters able to access the website were given an estimated wait time of more than an hour. The crashes appeared to occur only early in the rush but the long waits continued for hours.