Samara, the venue for England’s World Cup quarter-final, has been hit by a record-breaking heatwave in recent days, and the match is likely to be played in temperatures significantly warmer than those at England’s training base outside St Petersburg.

On Tuesday temperatures here reached 36.5C, breaking a temperature record for the city set in 1954 and causing problems with water pressure. By Thursday the temperature had dropped to around 30C but on Saturday afternoon, when Sweden and England will kick off at 6pm, it is still forecast to be 27-29C.

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The hot sunny weather will be a change for the England squad, much warmer than the chilly, drizzly evening in Moscow for the last-16 match against Colombia and a good 10C warmer than at their Repino base, where the daytime high is currently 17-18C with frequent rain. Sweden may be more acclimatised, with the team’s training base being in the sunny Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik.

However, England have shown they can play in high temperatures during the tournament, brushing aside Panama 6-1 in Nizhny Novgorod in temperatures over 30C.

Sweden have given themselves more time to settle in, as the squad flew here a full day before England. The Sweden squad were due to land on Thursday afternoon and spend 48 hours in Samara before the game. England are due to train in Repino on Friday morning and then fly at lunchtime.

The unusually hot weather here, combined with the presence of tens of thousands of fans, has put pressure on the region’s water system, leading to low water pressure in certain parts of the city. The hotels where the England and Sweden teams will stay are unlikely to be affected but the Samara water authorities released a statement this week saying pressure was affected and calling on people to save water by taking showers in pairs.

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The water authority issued a further statement on Thursday, clarifying that the call had been meant as a joke, after media coverage of a potential water shortage. “We jokily suggested people should shower in pairs and we even added a smiley face to our suggestion, but some media outlets have taken it too seriously,” ran the statement. “Water supply in Samara is normal … We hope that our call improved people’s moods and was taken with humour.”

A trickle of England fans began arriving in Samara on Thursday. Most flights and train tickets within 24 hours of the match have been snapped up long in advance, meaning supporters booking travel in recent days have had to resort to coach travel, car sharing or using nearby airports.

Mikhail Maltsev, the region’s head of tourism, said authorities were expecting the majority of spectators at the 42,000-seat Samara Arena to be Russian, with around 3,500 England fans and 5,500 Sweden fans.