Key events
England v Andorra line-ups
England: Pickford, James, Guehi, Burn, Lewis-Skelly, Anderson, Rice, Eze, Rashford, Madueke, Kane.
Subs: Trafford, D Henderson, Spence, Konsa, Livramento, J Henderson, Loftus-Cheek, Gordon, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Watkins, Bowen.
Andorra: Alvarez, Vales, Llovera, Garcia, R Fernandez, Babot, Rodrigo, San Nicolas, Cervos, Olivera, Borra.
Subs: Pires, Ruiz, Da Cunha, Rebes, De las Heras, Vales, Lopez, Alexandre Martinez, Rubio, Buillen, Da Silva, M Garcia
Elsewhere in Group K: Dusan Vlahovic scored the only goal of the game as Serbia beat Latvia in Riga earlier today. The Serbs go second in the group, two points behind England, who they host on Tuesday night. The gap will almost certainly have extended to five points by then, of course.
Elliot Anderson starts for England …
The 22-year-old Nottingham Forest player will make his senior international debut alongside Declan Rice in England’s midfield. They have a little in common, as Rice previously played three in three internationals for the Republic of Ireland before switching his allegiances to the Three Lions, while Anderson accepted an invitation from Steve Clarke to join a senior Scotland squad before thinking better of it, dropping out and deciding that his is an English heart.
Other vaguely eye-catching inclusions: Anderson’s former Newcastle teammate Dan Burn starts in the heart of England’s defence alongside Marc Guehi, Myles Lewis-Skelly gets the nod at left-back and Ebereche Eze has been been selected for the No10 role.
Early England team news: John Stones left the squad yesterday with a muscle injury but the 24 players he left behind are all fighting fit. So much so, that Jarell Quansah was left out of the matchday squad this morning because Thomas Tuchel can only name a 23-man squad for this match. The central defender, who joined Bayer Leverkusen from Liverpool this summer, has now received call-ups to three different England squads under two different managers but has yet to make his senior debut.
Tuchel announced yesterday that Harry Kane will definitely be starting up front for England tonight and is expected to field an extremely strong side, albeit in the absence through injury of Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Adam Wharton and Bukayo Saka. Elliot Anderson and Djed Spence received their first senior England call-ups from Tuchel and one or both players could make their international debuts tonight.
Group K: England v Andorra
With Wembley set to be stuffed to the gunnels with Coldplay fans this evening, Villa Park has the honour of throwing open its doors for an England international for the first time in 20 years. While only time will tell which of the two capacity crowds will be subjected to the more insipid and cloying performance, anything less than emphatic victory for Thomas Tuchel’s side over what is ostensibly a ski resort will result in much wailing, gnashing of teeth and hysterical handwringing ahead of England’s second game of the current window in Belgrade on Tuesday.
Top of Group K with a 100 per cent record that is almost certain to be maintained tonight, England’s automatic qualification for the World Cup is as near to a foregone conclusion as it is possible to be. However, in the absence of any kind of realistic jeopardy it is imperative that some must be confected, so we can expect no end of largely inconsequential but portentuous discourse about squad and team selections, tactical formations and the audacity of some German geezer coming over here and taking an English manager’s job even if the hosts run out easy winners this evening.
It is, of course, worth remembering that England only beat tonight’s opponents 1-0 in the corresponding fixture in the first match of a June international window to forget for Thomas Tuchel and his side. While Andorra’s borderline heroic obduracy is to be commended, one suspects they will do extremely well to keep the score that low tonight. Kick-off is at 5pm (BST) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
