Iceland will close all its 900-plus stores in the UK - including those in Wales - at 2pm on Sunday if England are playing in the World Cup final.

Today's announcement from the Deeside-based retailer comes after German chains Aldi and Lidl confirmed they were to shut up shop early.

England will book their place in Sunday's showpiece if they overcome Croatia in Wednesday's semi-final.

Staff at Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores will be paid in full for their scheduled hours on that day if the early closures go ahead.

Ewan McMahon, Operations Director of said: "We have huge confidence in the ability of the England team to reach and win the World Cup final – but we did not want to tempt fate, so we were planning to make this announcement on Wednesday once the semi-final result was known.

"However, the Germans have already got their towels on the sun-loungers with yesterday’s announcements from two of our rivals, so it seems right to let our colleagues and customers know our plans now.

"We also feel that it is right to extend early closing to all our UK stores so that our colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can enjoy the match, too.

“We all have our fingers crossed for an England win and to football coming home at the weekend.”