England will be looking to end their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign perfect when they travel to face Albania on Sunday at 5pm (UK time).
The Three Lions beat Serbia 2-0 on Thursday to maintain their perfect start in qualifying. That’s seven wins from seven, all without conceding a single goal.
England predicted lineup vs Albania
England (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Spence, Konsa, Stones, Burn; Wharton, Rice; Saka, Bellingham, Eze; Kane.
The victory also did Albania a favour as their win over Andorra means they will finish second ahead of Serbia and go into the draw for the play-off round in March.
That means there is little left to play for in this contest. So England boss Thomas Tuchel is likely to use the match as an audition for some of his fringe players to stake a claim for inclusion in the travelling party to North America for next summer’s extravaganza.
England team news vs Albania
Nick Pope, Anthony Gordon and Marc Guehi all withdrew from the squad prior to England’s victory over Serbia. But there have been no reports of any other injury issues following Thursday’s comfortable win at Wembley.
Tuchel went with a strong side for the Serbia contest, even naming Morgan Rogers in the starting line-up ahead of Jude Bellingham despite claiming the Aston Villa man was carrying a slight hamstring niggle.
Rogers lasted 65 minutes of the 2-0 win but looks likely to make way for Bellingham on Sunday with Tuchel expected to rotate his side.
That could also mean a start in attack for Phil Foden who, along with Eberechi Eze, impressed when joining the action midway through the second half. Harry Kane could return with no other recognised striker available.
Adam Wharton could be given his chance ahead of either Declan Rice or Elliot Anderson in midfield, while Djed Spence and Dan Burn are jostling for starts in defence with Nico O’Reilly, Jarell Quansah and Trevoh Chalobah.
Tuchel mixing history with future-planning
England are on a stunning run of form and their unbeaten sequence stretches to 10 matches in all competitions. Nine of those have seen the Three Lions come away with a clean sheet.
Tuchel will want to extend that run and create a piece of history. But he will also be keen to use this weekend’s final qualifying fixture as an opportunity to give some of his fringe players a much-needed chance to shine.
The German has stuck with a tried and tested nucleus of key men for most of the qualifying campaign but he will know that he needs to take a look at his back-up options with so much top-class talent to choose from. It’s a nice headache to have and one that most nations can only dream of.
Foden, Bellingham, Eze and Wharton are just some of the names waiting patiently in the wings. The likes of Jack Grealish, Danny Welbeck and Ivan Toney couldn’t even make it into recent squads.
The likelihood of being able to take a 30-man squad to the World Cup would help matters. But Tuchel must start to look ahead to next summer and that is likely to start on Sunday in Tirana.