Life under Thomas Tuchel gets started for England with a Wembley encounter against Albania in the first of eight Group K World Cup qualifying matches.
Tuchel raised a few eyebrows with some of his squad selections, including a recall for experienced midfielder Jordan Henderson, and will be keen to win over some of the sceptics by presiding over a convincing home victory.
Automatic qualification will be the target but top spot needs to be earned at the expense of Albania and Serbia, who will have their own ideas about booking a ticket to next summer’s World Cup finals.
Albania have never featured at a World Cup but they took part at Euro 2024 and competed strongly in a tough group, losing 2-1 to Italy, drawing 2-2 with Croatia and losing 1-0 to Spain.
However, the Albanians have struggled in fixtures against England, losing all six of them by a margin of two goals or more.
- ENGLAND TO WIN 3-0
- HARRY KANE TO SCORE THE FIRST GOAL
- IVAN BALLIU SHOWN A CARD
Tuchel’s Lions Can Make A Flying Start
England’s players will be eager to impress their new manager and they can get into his good books by delivering a strong performance and a victory in their World Cup qualifier against Albania.
Tuchel will be demanding high standards from the start of his reign as he seeks to ensure smooth progress towards the 2026 World Cup.
Lessons are likely to have been learned from the Nations League campaign when England performed poorly in a 2-1 loss at home to Greece and left themselves with a lot of recovery work to do.
Tuchel will ask his players to lead from the front in World Cup qualifying and that means securing a statement win over Albania, who showed themselves to be potentially awkward opponents with a trio of competitive performances at Euro 2024.
Albania were far less impressive in the Nations League though, finishing bottom of Group B1, and their World Cup qualifying campaign could commence with a heavy defeat.
ENGLAND TO WIN 3-0
Clinical Kane Can Start The Scoring
Tuchel got the best out of Harry Kane when they worked together at Bayern Munich and he can rely on the 31-year-old to set the ball rolling against Albania.
Kane is on target to top the Bundesliga scoring charts for a second successive season and his finishing qualities should expose an injury-hit Albania defence.
HARRY KANE TO SCORE THE FIRST GOAL
Reserve Right Back May Struggle
England will be looking to play at a high tempo from the first whistle and the intensity of their attacks could cause problems for Albania’s depleted rearguard.
Albania must set up at Wembley without injured first-choice full backs Elseid Hysaj and Mario Mitaj and that could soon pose them a problem against an England team eager to make full use of a large playing surface.
Rayo Vallecano’s Ivan Balliu seems likely to get the nod in the right back position but he may not be ready for the challenge due to a lack of recent exposure for his club.
Balliu has yet to start a La Liga match in 2025 and his rustiness could contribute to a few mistimed challenges, making him a strong candidate to enter referee Alejandro Hernandez’s notebook.
IVAN BALLIU SHOWN A CARD
