Czechia v England: Nations League football – live

September 30, 2026
2:04 am

Key events

In other news…

David Hytner

James Trafford looks genuinely affronted. The Leeds goalkeeper’s reaction borders on incredulity. Was it a season of frustration for him at Manchester City last time out, he is asked? A wasted year? “I won two trophies,” he says very simply and very firmly.

Defiance is the stock in trade of a goalkeeper and Trafford has a nice line in it, on and off the pitch. Thrust into the England lineup against Spain at Wembley on Saturday for only his third cap, he performed well, particularly during the opening 35 minutes when the world champions threatened to run riot. Trafford made two excellent saves that kept England in contention, laying the groundwork for their surge into a 2-1 half-time lead. They ended up losing 3-2 in the Nations League opener after Harry Kane missed a 54th-minute penalty for 3-1.

Czechia are also on nil points in Nations League Group A3 – they lost 2-1 at home to Croatia on Saturday.

Andrew Beasley

England dominated Spain to an extent very few teams have in recent years. Sadly for them, not in terms of goals. Nor possession. But ownership of the ball is less important than where on the pitch it occurs. Thomas Tuchel’s side had 36 touches in the visitors’ penalty area, a ridiculously high total when put in context of Spain’s last decade.

They allowed just 9.5 touches per 90 minutes at the 2026 World Cup. The combined efforts of Belgium, France and Argentina registered 38 touches in the Spain box in the final three rounds of the tournament. Since available records began (at the start of Euro 2016), the most box touches a side has had against Spain was the 45 Germany had in the quarter-final of Euro 2024. However, that game went to extra time. France had 42 in normal time in the ridiculous Nations League semi-final they lost 5-4 last year, then come England, second best in regular time from a sample of 133 matches.

So, Trent Alexander-Arnold starts for the first time under Thomas Tuchel. As our football correspondent David Hytner points out, he has made only one appearance under Tuchel as a substitute against Andorra. For richer (mainly) and poorer, his inclusion will make England a different team.

England ended 2025 protected by a shield of deceptive strength. They went through qualifying for the World Cup without conceding a goal and secured a shutout during a routine friendly win against Wales. However, clean sheets have been harder to come by this year. England have kept four in 13 games in 2026, meaning it may not be long before Thomas Tuchel rethinks his suggestion that the way to deal with his side’s lack of control is to embrace chaos.

There is, of course, an irony to telling Tuchel to sort out his defence. Isn’t this what we wanted? England were limp and passive when they lost their World Cup semi-final against Argentina. At least the mindset was positive when Tuchel’s side opened their Nations League campaign with a sprightly but flawed 3-2 defeat against Spain last Saturday.

Thomas Tuchel says it would be “madness” to allow his England players or the clubs to pick and choose their matches during the elongated Nations League window as he promised to go full throttle for victory against Czechia in Prague on Tuesday.

The manager did accept that Declan Rice needed to rest and could not be part of the squad in light of the Arsenal midfielder’s heavy workload across a number of seasons and well-documented fitness issues. Rice was at Wembley on Saturday to watch England lose 3-2 against Spain in their opening Nations League game.

Barney Ronay

You could feel it inside the stadium, one of those moments where the air starts to shift, the birds fly backwards through the sky, and outside on Wembley Way an old man clutches his copy of the England Pathway Blueprint to his chest and cowers up at the moon. Welcome to the witching hour, 55 minutes in, when things just seem to happen to Thomas Tuchel’s England.

Before this Nations League opener there was general agreement on the desirability of systems, pattern, repeatability. And you can’t say England aren’t consistent. Their last two significant matches, here and in Atlanta in July, have both involved going a goal ahead against the World Cup finalists, playing well and dominating parts of the game, right up until the 55-minute mark.

Team news

There are four changes for England from Saturday’s defeat, three in defence. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Trevoh Chalobah, Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers replace Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly and Jude Bellingham.

Rio Ngumoha, who was left out of the matchday squad on Saturday, is among the subs.

Czechia (4-3-3) Kovar; Chaloupek, Hranac, Krejci, Slama; Cerv, Sulc, Sadilek; Radosta, Hlosek, Karabec.

Subs: Hornicek, Kinsky, Kricfalusi, Zmrzly, Vasulin, Ambros, Vitik, Bucha, Macek, Lingr, Kral, Sacek.

England (4-2-3-1) Trafford; Alexander-Arnold, Chalobah, Guehi, Hall; Anderson, Lewis-Skelly; Saka, Rogers, Gordon; Kane.

Subs: Pickford, Steele, Scott, Konsa, Bellingham, Ngumoha, Branthwaite, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Gibbs-White, Eze, Quansah.

Referee Umut Meler (Turkey).

Jacob Steinberg

Thomas Tuchel will resist making drastic changes to his defence despite England going six games without a clean sheet before facing Czechia in the Nations League on Tuesday.

Although Tuchel acknowledged that his side were a “danger to ourselves” when they lost 3-2 against Spain last Saturday, the head coach stood by Marc Guéhi and Nico O’Reilly after their errors against the world champions.

The message was one of continuity as England arrived in Prague for their second game in Nations League Group A3. Tuchel has injury concerns over O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa but is likely to keep the changes to a minimum at the back. James Trafford will continue in goal and Tuchel believes the defeat against Spain was down to individual mistakes rather than structural issues with England’s defending.