Key events
Jordan Pickford wins his 80th cap tonight. He last let in a goal at the tail end of cap number 71. Here’s David Hytner on England’s record-breaking keeper.
There are two changes to the England starting XI after the 3-0 defeat of Wales. The captain Harry Kane returns from injury, taking the place of Ollie Watkins, who is no longer with the squad due to a knee problem. Myles Lewis-Skelly comes into a reshuffled defence with John Stones partnering Ezri Konsa in the middle; Marc Guehi drops to the bench as a result.
The teams
Latvia: Zviedris, Vapne, Jurkovskis, Cernomordijs, Balodis, Ciganiks, Varslavans, Veips, Zelenkovs, Gutkovskis, Ikaunieks.
Subs: Orols, Matrevics, Jagodinskis, Grabovskis, Daskevics, Savalnieks, Penkevics, Pulis, Tonisevs, Regza, Melniks, Saveljevs.
England: Pickford, Spence, Stones, Konsa, Lewis-Skelly, Anderson, Rice, Saka, Rogers, Gordon, Kane.
Subs: Dean Henderson, Trafford, Guehi, Jordan Henderson, Eze, Rashford, Burn, Gibbs-White, Bowen, O’Reilly, Loftus-Cheek.
Referee: Tasos Sidiropoulos (Greece).
Preamble
England will qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico if they beat Latvia tonight. It’ll only be a story if they fail to do it. Thomas Tuchel’s side are ranked fourth in the world and purring, having recently stuck five past Serbia and three past Wales. They’re top of Group K having won all five of their previous matches without conceding a goal. One of those victories was this one …
… which was an outcome only to be expected against a side ranked 137th. And it’s fair to say Latvia are not in form. They’ve only won four of their last 31 matches, and those against Armenia, Faroe Islands (twice) and Andorra; they were unable to beat the Andorrans at home last weekend. So chances are England will be rubber-stamping their documents for the Americas this evening. Still, you never know, and if you shop around you can get as much as 60s if you fancy Latvia to record one of the great upsets. Either way, fate will begin to do its thing at 7.45pm UK time, 9.45pm in Riga. It’s on!
