Thomas Tuchel has suggested he will not make many changes to his England squad for next month’s qualifiers despite reaching the 2026 FIFA World Cup with two games to spare.
The Three Lions defeated Latvia 5-0 on Tuesday evening to book their place in next summer’s tournament in North America.
Anthony Gordon opened the scoring before Harry Kane grabbed a brace on the brink of half-time. Maksims Tonisev accidentally put Djed Spence’s cross into his own goal in the second half, and Eberechi Eze completed the rout with a late goal.
The result means England cannot be overtaken by either Albania or Serbia at the top of Group K. They won all six of their matches, scored eighteen goals and conceded none.
Tuchel is wary of making changes to the ‘very expensive’ England team
Tuchel now has the luxury of being able to rest his key players and change his starting line-up in the final two group games against Serbia and Albania. However, the German hinted that he might prefer to stick with his regular starters in order to build up the team’s rhythm ahead of the World Cup.
“Now that we know we’re qualified, I’m not sure if this changes anything in the nomination process.
“This is the moment to enjoy it, you can feel it in the dressing room. It is a very special moment and it is not every day that we qualify for the World Cup and we did that today.”
“Harry [Kane] just gave a speech saying that everyone will be prepared to see this through in November and that no one will take this for granted.
“Maybe it gives us a chance to try things, but we will remain competitive and we want to win both games. We owe it to ourselves and to our fans. We have to keep going and what we are building is very precious and we will keep building.”
Tuchel’s comments could be bad news for the likes of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Adam Wharton and Curtis Jones, who were all left out of last week’s squad.
Jude Bellingham was also left out after recently recovering from shoulder surgery, although he is expected to return to the squad next month.
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