{"id":568267,"date":"2025-11-13T19:35:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568267\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T19:35:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:35:32","slug":"lineups-team-news-from-world-cup-2026-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568267\/","title":{"rendered":"lineups, team news from World Cup 2026 qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget making the shirt lighter, how about the shoes? The England players were padding about in new sneakers on Wednesday \u2014 garish numbers which, put it this way, you would never lose in the dark, (Jonathan Northcroft writes).<\/p>\n

They were gifts from the team\u2019s kit-maker, Nike, and billed as \u201cpregame mules\u201d which enhance the wearer with \u201cmind-altering science\u201d. Or were they just 80 quid Crocs?<\/p>\n

\u201c[The players] told me they can focus better if they wear these shoes and maybe the most important thing is they believe it,\u201d said Thomas Tuchel, who wore a very ordinary pair of trainers \u2014 and an amused expression. <\/p>\n

Focus better? \u201cI said it\u2019s important you wear them for my meetings,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read in full: <\/b>England need hunger, not \u2018mind-altering\u2019 shoes, for dead rubbers<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Scott will have to wait for England debut<\/p>\n

There is no place in tonight\u2019s 23-man squad for the Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, who was called up to the senior England team for the first time last week.<\/p>\n

The injured Crystal Palace defender Marc Gu\u00e9hi<\/a> also misses out, although it is hoped that he may able to play in England\u2019s final World Cup qualifier away to Albania on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Atmosphere building at Wembley<\/p>\n

Kick-off is just over half an hour away now\u2026<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

MICHAEL REGAN\/THE FA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

PAUL HARDING\/THE FA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\"EnglandWhy Rangnick is inspiration for Tuchel\u2019s World Cup masterplan<\/p>\n

England smelt blood. As Latvia sought to play out with passes across their defensive line, there would be as many as seven white shirts swarming them, looking to regain possession close to their opponents\u2019 goal (Paul Joyce writes).<\/p>\n

Anthony Gordon cut out a ball from Roberts Veips intended for Raivis Jurkovskis near the corner flag and, had it not been for the alertness of the goalkeeper Krisjanis Zviedris, a reverse pass from Harry Kane to Declan Rice might have brought reward.<\/p>\n

As it was, England were made to wait only another 22 seconds for their prize.<\/p>\n

Once again, it came from Latvian naivety but also the aggressive intent of Thomas Tuchel<\/a>\u2019s side to win back the ball.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read in full: <\/b>Why Ralf Rangnick is inspiration for Thomas Tuchel\u2019s World Cup masterplan<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Bellingham on bench, Rogers starts<\/p>\n

As expected, Jude Bellingham starts tonight\u2019s game on the bench, with Morgan Rogers favoured ahead of the Real Madrid midfielder. Here\u2019s the England line-up in full:<\/p>\n

England line-upJ Pickford \u2014 R James, E Konsa, J Stones, N O\u2019Reilly \u2014 M Rogers, E Anderson, D Rice \u2014 M Rashford, B Saka, H Kane.Substitutes:<\/b> A Wharton, J Bellingham, J Bowen, D Burn, T Chalobah, E Eze, P Foden, D Henderson, J Henderson, J Quansah, D Spence, J Trafford.Serbia line-upP Rajkovic \u2014 S Pavlovic, N Milenkovic, A Terzic \u2014 O Mimovic, I Ilic, N Gudelj, S Lukic, F Kostic \u2014 A Zivkovic, D Vlahovic.Substitutes:<\/b> S Erakovic, M Grujic, L Ilic, V Ilic, L Jovic, A Katai, V Milosavljevic, D Petrovic, N Radonjic, L Samardzic, A Stankovic, M Veljkovic.O\u2019Reilly to make senior England debut<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been quite the week for Nico O\u2019Reilly (Hamzah Khalique-Loonat writes). He was handed a call-up to the senior squad on Friday, kept Mohamed Salah (relatively) quiet in Manchester City\u2019s 3-0 win over Liverpool<\/a> at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, and is now making his senior England debut. Only a few months ago, he was in Lee Carsley\u2019s Under-21 squad, and if not for the Club World Cup (which he played in for City), he would likely have been at the U21 Euros in the summer. The rise of this former No10 (yes, you read that right) is remarkable.<\/p>\n

The real Jude Bellingham: inspirational leader or toxic influence?<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoon in Madrid (Owen Slot writes). The two Real Madrid team buses have pulled up outside the Estadio de Vallecas; it\u2019s one hour and 40 minutes before kick-off against their city rivals, Rayo Vallecano. Hordes of fans, fenced off 20 yards away, scream enthusiastically as the players emerge briefly one by one from their bus and into the stadium. And then something happens, fleeting but telling.<\/p>\n

The players studiously fail to register their army of attendant followers. This behaviour is now the norm: it\u2019s pre-kick-off, you can wear your headphones, head down, you\u2019re focusing on the game, so we have therefore come to accept that it\u2019s not rude to ignore.<\/p>\n

Yet there are two exceptions. One is Fran Garc\u00eda, who used to play for Rayo Vallecano. The other is Jude Bellingham. Just a wave is all it takes. Screams of applause come back in return. There, it wasn\u2019t that hard, was it?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read in full: <\/b>The real Jude Bellingham: inspirational leader or toxic influence?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Konsa wants to \u2018think like a striker\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking in the lead-up to tonight\u2019s game, Ezri \u00adKonsa emphasised the importance of set pieces to England as the national team looks to tap into the craze sweeping the Premier League<\/a>: 28.2 per cent of goals have been scored from them in the top flight this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to work on it as much as we can,\u201d Konsa, 28, said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big point here, definitely, working on our set \u00adpieces. Ant Barry [Tuchel\u2019s No 2] does a great job at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konsa scored his first international goal from one routine during England\u2019s 5-0 win over Serbia in Belgrade, drawing upon the expertise of Villa\u2019s set-piece coach, Austin MacPhee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [MacPhee] always says when we\u2019re attacking corners and free-kicks to think like a striker,\u201d Konsa said. \u201cIn that situation, I wanted to think like a striker \u2014 just run into the box and hopefully there\u2019s a rebound. It just fell to me and I smashed it in with my left foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellingham has No10 shirt \u2014 but likely to start on bench<\/p>\n

The in-house TV cameras have just been in the dressing rooms at Wembley and show Jude Bellingham<\/a> has the No10 shirt (Paul Joyce writes). <\/p>\n

He is unlikely to have the No10 role, however, with Morgan Rogers poised to keep his place in the starting line-up following his recent eye-catching performances.<\/p>\n

Bellingham looks set to begin on the substitutes\u2019 bench, with the teams set to be confirmed at about 6.30pm. Rogers, for the record, is wearing No15. <\/p>\n

Welcome to our live coverage of England vs Serbia<\/p>\n

Good evening and welcome to The Times\u2019 live coverage of England vs Serbia at Wembley. With six wins from six, 18 points and no goals conceded, Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side are looking to extend their perfect record in World Cup<\/a> qualifying, after having already secured their place at next summer\u2019s tournament as group K winners with two games to spares thanks to the 5-0 win over Latvia<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

Kick-off is at 7.45pm. Stay tuned for updates from Hamzah Khalique-Loonat at Wembley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forget making the shirt lighter, how about the shoes? The England players were padding about in new sneakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[45789,748,9355,393,21003,4884,65959,9461,12,87062,6567,6097,16,15,6691,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-568267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-45789","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cup","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-from","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-lineups","15":"tag-live","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-qualifier","18":"tag-serbia","19":"tag-team","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-vs","23":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115544073484438376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}