The qualification matches for FIFA World Cup 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico are due to resume in early September. England will face Group K minnows Andorra at Villa Park in Birmingham on Saturday the 6th of September followed by a tricky looking trip to Belgrade. There they will face Dragan Stojković’s Serbia at the Red Star stadium on Tuesday the 9th of September.
England currently sit top of Group K, having won all three of their opening fixtures including a 1-0 win away in Andorra last time out, back in June. They are yet to meet Serbia, who have a win and a draw from the two qualifiers that they have played to date. On paper, the Serbians could present the toughest test that England will face on the road to the finals.
England manager Thomas Tuchel only has three rounds of Premier League action in which to gauge the form of his players ahead of the September international break, so there are unlikely to be many surprises in his squad. Thus far in his tenure he has tended to plump for experience over experimenting with youngsters.
Tuchel did have a close eye on the England U-21 team that lifted the UEFA European U-21 Championships over the summer, so he’ll be well aware of the talent pool at his disposal. He’ll need to cast his eye far and wide across Europe’s top leagues this season as there are more Englishmen than ever before plying their trade overseas, and that can only be a good thing for player development.
Last night, for example, Olympique de Marseille kicked off their season with no fewer than four English players in their starting line-up for their trip to Rennes. U-21 winner Jonathan Rowe and last season’s Ligue 1 joint top scorer Mason Greenwood were joined by new signings Angel Gomes and CJ Egan-Riley. Gomes, who has four England caps, arrived on a free transfer from Lille and Egan-Riley came on a free from Burnley. CJ Egan-Riley was also part of the victorious U-21 squad.
It is a trend that is being repeated across the continent with the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), Jobe Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund) and Tyler Morton (Lyon) some of the other high profile England or England U-21 players to make the move abroad this summer.