Czechia v England: Nations League soccer – stay
Key occasions
24 min: Sulc despatched off!
Yep, Pavel Sulc is off. He plunged his studs into Anderson’s achilles and has been despatched off. It wasn’t malicious but it surely was a poor problem.
23 min Sulc is booked for a poor problem on Anderson. This could be upgraded as he caught Anderson on the achilles.
22 min Hall makes a handy guide a rough problem simply outdoors the Czechia space on the left. Gordon collects and whips a curling shot simply huge of the far submit. That’s a fairly good effort.
21 min See 19 min.
19 min England proceed to dominate possession however Czechia are vigorous and purposeful on the break. Thus far, it’s a good recreation.
16 min: Rogers hits the submit!
A exact low cross from Gordon finds Rogers, whose shot on the flip hits the face of the far submit. Anderson’s follow-up is blocked, as is Saka’s.
13 min Kane is properly tackled excessive up the sphere. The ball runs to Sulc, who delays and delays after which drives a shot that’s blocked by Chalobah. England are usually not oozing solidity in defence.
12 min Radosta runs at Hall and clips a cross that’s headed away by Guehi. Cerv addresses the unfastened ball with a volley from 22 yards that flies huge.
9 min Harry Kane is spoken to by the referee after an off-the-ball incident with Cerv. I’d wish to see that once more; at greatest, Kane was heavy-handed. But then aren’t all of us.
7 min “In different information,” writes Charles Antaki, “England are formally defensively higher than Croatia, we now have simply conceded a objective after one minute 12 seconds. Scored by Lamine Yamal, in fact, whose dander was presumably up having been whacked by one of many extra heavy-duty Croatians simply a few moments earlier than.”
5 min: Chance for Czechia An extended ball from defence skips previous Anderson close to the midway line, permitting Sulc to run past Chalobah and thru on objective. His contact is heavy and Trafford costs to the sting of the field to smother. Excellent goalkeeping.
3 min Plenty of early possession for England, although nothing to report past that.
1 min Peep peep! England kick off from left to proper as we watch.
There’s a minute applause in reminiscence of the mighty Ludek Miklosko, a Blackburn and West Ham legend, who died earlier this month aged 64.
‘Just wade through your time, like Leslie Grantham’
Thomas Tuchel’s pre-match ideas
Two [of the changes in defence] are pressured, with Nico O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa out. One is deliberate – we went for Trent.
The message is what we count on from him, the place the areas are… in any other case he doesn’t want loads, he’s very skilled. It’s been a cursed place for us [with injuries], so right now is his chancee.
[On Jude Bellingham’s omission] We had a chat this morning. Both our hearts mentioned 60 minutes, however each our heads mentioned half-hour make extra sense.
Fifty years later
A kick remembered for comedic causes, largely by means of Micah Richards and Alan Shearer chuckling about it every few months on their podcast. But on the time this was a second of pathos and heartbreak, as Lineker passed up his best, if not his final, likelihood to equal Bobby Charlton’s all-time England objective file.
This is Thomas Tuchel’s twenty fourth England recreation – and his twentieth completely different again 4. The days of Stevens-Walker-Butcher-Pearce* are lengthy gone.
* Yeah, yeah, I do know they modified after the primary recreation of Italia 90, but it surely was a settled again 4 till then.
Ian Wright, who’s the a part of the ITV workforce tonight, says Manchester City have been discovered responsible of “dishonest on an industrial scale… an unprecedented punishment is required”.
Roy Keane, sporting a darkish blue smoking jacket that makes him appear like a risky Hugh Hefner, says they “deserve that punishment” and that it’s “not good for the league”.
In different information…
David Hytner
James Trafford seems to be genuinely affronted. The Leeds goalkeeper’s response borders on incredulity. Was it a season of frustration for him at Manchester City final trip, he’s requested? A wasted yr? “I received two trophies,” he says very merely and really firmly.
Defiance is the inventory in commerce of a goalkeeper and Trafford has a pleasant line in it, on and off the pitch. Thrust into the England lineup against Spain at Wembley on Saturday for less than his third cap, he carried out properly, notably through the opening 35 minutes when the international stage champions threatened to run riot. Trafford made two glorious saves that stored England in rivalry, laying the groundwork for his or her surge right into a 2-1 half-time lead. They ended up dropping 3-2 within the Nations League opener after Harry Kane missed a 54th-minute penalty for 3-1.
Czechia are additionally on nil factors in Nations League Group A3 – they misplaced 2-1 at dwelling to Croatia on Saturday.
Andrew Beasley
England dominated Spain to an extent only a few groups have in recent times. Sadly for them, not in terms of goals. Nor possession. But possession of the ball is much less necessary than the place on the pitch it happens. Thomas Tuchel’s facet had 36 touches within the guests’ penalty space, a ridiculously excessive whole when put in context of Spain’s final decade.
They allowed simply 9.5 touches per 90 minutes on the 2026 World Cup. The mixed efforts of Belgium, France and Argentina registered 38 touches within the Spain field within the ultimate three rounds of the event. Since accessible information started (initially of Euro 2016), probably the most field touches a facet has had towards Spain was the 45 Germany had within the quarter-final of Euro 2024. However, that recreation went to additional time. France had 42 in regular time within the ridiculous Nations League semi-final they misplaced 5-4 final yr, then come England, second greatest in common time from a pattern of 133 matches.
So, Trent Alexander-Arnold begins for the primary time below Thomas Tuchel. As our soccer correspondent David Hytner factors out, he has made just one look below Tuchel as an alternative towards Andorra. For richer (primarily) and poorer, his inclusion will make England a unique workforce.
England ended 2025 protected by a protect of misleading power. They went by means of qualifying for the World Cup with out conceding a objective and secured a shutout throughout a routine pleasant win towards Wales. However, clear sheets have been more durable to come back by this yr. England have stored 4 in 13 video games in 2026, that means it might not be lengthy earlier than Thomas Tuchel rethinks his suggestion that the best way to take care of his side’s lack of control is to embrace chaos.
There is, in fact, an irony to telling Tuchel to type out his defence. Isn’t this what we wished? England had been limp and passive after they lost their World Cup semi-final towards Argentina. At least the mindset was optimistic when Tuchel’s facet opened their Nations League marketing campaign with a sprightly however flawed 3-2 defeat towards Spain final Saturday.
Thomas Tuchel says it might be “insanity” to permit his England gamers or the golf equipment to select and select their matches through the elongated Nations League window as he promised to go full throttle for victory towards Czechia in Prague on Tuesday.
The supervisor did settle for that Declan Rice wanted to relaxation and couldn’t be a part of the squad in mild of the Arsenal midfielder’s heavy workload throughout plenty of seasons and well-documented health points. Rice was at Wembley on Saturday to look at England lose 3-2 against Spain of their opening Nations League recreation.
Barney Ronay
You might really feel it contained in the stadium, a kind of moments the place the air begins to shift, the birds fly backwards by means of the sky, and outdoors on Wembley Way an previous man clutches his copy of the England Pathway Blueprint to his chest and cowers up on the moon. Welcome to the witching hour, 55 minutes in, when issues simply appear to occur to Thomas Tuchel’s England.
Before this Nations League opener there was normal settlement on the desirability of methods, sample, repeatability. And you’ll be able to’t say England aren’t constant. Their final two important matches, right here and in Atlanta in July, have each concerned going a objective forward towards the World Cup finalists, taking part in properly and dominating components of the sport, proper up till the 55-minute mark.
Team information
There are 4 modifications for England from Saturday’s defeat, three in defence. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Trevoh Chalobah, Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers substitute Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly and Jude Bellingham.
Rio Ngumoha, who was neglected of the matchday squad on Saturday, is among the many subs.
Czechia (4-3-3) Kovar; Chaloupek, Hranac, Krejci, Slama; Cerv, Sulc, Sadilek; Radosta, Hlosek, Karabec.
Subs: Hornicek, Kinsky, Kricfalusi, Zmrzly, Vasulin, Ambros, Vitik, Bucha, Macek, Lingr, Kral, Sacek.
England (4-2-3-1) Trafford; Alexander-Arnold, Chalobah, Guehi, Hall; Anderson, Lewis-Skelly; Saka, Rogers, Gordon; Kane.
Subs: Pickford, Steele, Scott, Konsa, Bellingham, Ngumoha, Branthwaite, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Gibbs-White, Eze, Quansah.
Referee Umut Meler (Turkey).
Jacob Steinberg
Thomas Tuchel will resist making drastic modifications to his defence regardless of England going six video games with out a clear sheet earlier than going through Czechia within the Nations League on Tuesday.
Although Tuchel acknowledged that his facet had been a “hazard to ourselves” after they lost 3-2 against Spain final Saturday, the pinnacle coach stood by Marc Guéhi and Nico O’Reilly after their errors towards the international stage champions.
The message was considered one of continuity as England arrived in Prague for his or her second recreation in Nations League Group A3. Tuchel has harm issues over O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa however is prone to maintain the modifications to a minimal on the again. James Trafford will proceed in objective and Tuchel believes the defeat towards Spain was all the way down to particular person errors fairly than structural points with England’s defending.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to stay protection of the Nations League recreation between Czechia and England in Prague. Big recreation, this. A win for England would scale back the slowly rising stress on Thomas Tuchel; a defeat would give it extra fertiliser and depart England up towards it within the admittedly not-that-important battle to achieve the Nations League quarter-finals.
England did a variety of good issues towards Spain on Saturday, and dropping to the very best workforce within the international stage ought to by no means be a criminal offense. But rightly or wrongly, the temper across the England workforce has been febrile since their collapse towards Argentina, so tonight issues. outcome – and an emphatic efficiency – would turn out to be useful.
Kick-off 7.45pm BST.
