Overview
England started smoothly in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers by defeating Albania 2-0 at home. Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane scored for the "Three Lions".
Thomas Tuchel's side are currently extending their winning streak to four, in addition to defeats to Finland, Greece and Ireland. Even after the EURO 2024 final, England have won 6/7 matches. For Tuchel, he also had a favorable debut for the England team.
In the last 4 matches, the "Three Lions" scored a total of 13 goals, an average of 3.25 goals/match. This is not surprising as England currently have top European attackers such as Harry Kane, Bellingham, Foden and Gordon. Their defensive ability is also very impressive when they have completely conceded 3 consecutive goals.
Meanwhile, Latvia (140th in the world) also won 3 points in the opening match when defeating their opponent 31 places lower than Andorra with a minimum score. However, when facing teams of equal or higher level, coach Paolo Nicolato's team clearly showed their weaknesses.
This is demonstrated through the record of 4 losses, 1 draw and only 1 win in the Nations League (in the same group as North Macedonia, Armenia, Faroe Island), and conceding 11 goals. In terms of force, most of the players in the Latvia squad are unknown.
Obviously, Latvia are at a completely lower level than the England team at the moment. Unless there is a big shock at Wembley, if not, the Northern representative will almost certainly suffer a heavy defeat against the "Three Lions".
Personnel situation
England head coach Tuchel could experiment with a new starting lineup, as Jarrod Bowen, Marc Guehi and Morgan Rogers all want a starting spot.
After coming off the bench and scoring the only goal against Andorra, Dario Sits was expected to start for Latvia.
Expected lineup:
Anh: Pickford, Walker, Guehi, Colwill, Lewis-Skelly, Henderson, Rice, Bowen, Bellingham, Rogers, Kane.
Ukraine: Sweden: Swedenvis, Jurkovskis, Balodis, Cernomordijs, Savalists, Melniks, Savaljevs, Ciganiks, Zelenkovs, Ikaunieks, Sits.
The match between England and Latvia takes place at 2:45 am on March 25 (Vietnam time).
