Thomas Tuchel’s England have made it seven wins from seven in World Cup 2026 qualification, and still without even a single goal conceded (with 20 scored), as they beat Serbia, 2-0 last night. Of course, they have already qualified for the World Cup, so now it’s just about putting the finishing touches on a perfect qualifying campaign and keeping that momentum rolling into next summer’s tournament.
Keeping the Blue flag flying high (and way too long) for the Three Lions was Reece James, who started
and played the full-90 at right back. Trevoh Chalobah, a late call-up after Marc Guéhi pulled out with injury, was an unused substitute. Hopefully he can get his second senior cap on Sunday, when England take on Albania.
Arsenal wingers Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze provided the scoring on Thursday night, as Tuchel’s England continue to exhibit similar qualities to when he guided Chelsea to the Champions League pinnacle in 2021: “we absolutely have and build a team that nobody wants to play against,” as he said famously after his first game in charge back then.
Meanwhile, our other right back was also in action, as Malo Gusto came off the bench for his seventh senior cap in the closing minutes of France’s 4-0 win over Ukraine. That result looks more impressive on paper than it was in reality, with France leaving most of the scoring for the final 10-15 minutes. Hard to keep the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Hugo Ekitike, and Michael Olise quiet for too long!
One other result of note was a Pedro Neto-less Portugal managing to lose, 2-0 to the Republic of Ireland. Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off in the second half for elbowing: an expected three-match (competitive) ban would rule him out for the first game of the World Cup.
More remarkably, that World Cup place is thus not quite yet assured either, and should Portugal lose their final qualifier, Sunday against Armenia, and should Hungary beat Republic of Ireland that same day, it would be Hungary who’d qualify automatically as group-winners! Hungary have not made to a World Cup in (nearly) my entire lifetime.
