International Football
2026 World
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England face Serbia in a 2026 World Cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium today.
The hosts have already qualified for next summer's tournament, but tonight's opponents are at risk of missing out.
Thomas Tuchel has overseen six England wins from six in this qualifying campaign as momentum builds ahead of the World Cup.
GO FURTHER
England to name Morgan Rogers as No 10 against Serbia, Jude Bellingham on bench
It might seem like a knee-jerk reaction to call for Brighton striker Danny Welbeck, 34, to earn an England recall on the back of six goals in his last six Premier League games.
After all, international selection isn’t solely about picking in-form players — it’s about creating a cohesive group — and it’s been seven years since Welbeck’s last England cap.
Welbeck is probably in the best form of his career. Only Erling Haaland and Igor Thiago have more in the Premier League this season. He is regarded as a good professional, a popular team-mate and a reliable traveller.
More importantly, of course, he would be a useful plan B, and also a decent tactical option if England need discipline in advanced positions.
One thing which probably concerns most England fans is the lack of backup for star player and captain Harry Kane.
There is no doubt at all that Kane, his country's record goalscorer with 76 goals from 110 caps, is one of the best finishers in world football. But he is also 33 next July and has been dogged by several injuries in the last few years.
What if he is injured, ill or unfit at the World Cup? As Rob Tanner outlined here, the most recent deputies in Dom Solanke, Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins are injured, in Saudi Arabia and painfully out of form.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Callum Wilson and Liam Delap aren't scoring regularly in the Premier League; Jarrod Bowen, Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford are better out wide.
In the latest squad, Rashford and Bowen are the only players who could moonlight up front. For now, that is enough for Tuchel.
How long do you have? Of course, there are only 11 starters, but… in goal, No. 2 Dean Henderson could maybe consider himself unlucky not to be given a run-out recently, especially in the friendly match against Wales.
At the back, Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite when fully fit would be above Dan Burn in this correspondent's pecking order at centre-half.
Tyrick Mitchell's stellar form for Crystal Palace at left-back has been overlooked again, with natural midfielder Nico O'Reilly, 20, natural right-back Djed Spence and 33-year-old veteran Burn considered adequate cover for a specialist position.
Attacking midfield? Jack Grealish's club form at Everton has ever so slightly dropped off but his maverick abilities deserve a place.
On the wing Noni Madueke might replace Jarrod Bowen when back from injury too. The real controversy lies in central midfield, with the 35-year-old Jordan Henderson's place called into question by many.
Plenty of players who could and maybe should be in the squad and potentially the team ahead of him. Curtis Jones, Conor Gallagher, maybe even the dropped Gibbs-White too.
Serbia's squad is as follows.
Goalkeepers: Veljko Ilic (Widzew Lodz), Djordje Petrovic (Bournemouth), Predrag Rajkovic (Al-Ittihad).
Defenders: Strahinja Erakovic (Zenit Saint Petersburg), Nikola Milenkovic (Nottingham Forest), Veljko Milosavljevic (Bournemouth), Ognjen Mimovic (Pafos), Strahinja Pavlovic (Milan), Mihailo Ristic (Celta Vigo), Aleksa Terzic (Red Bull Salzburg), Milos Veljkovic (Red Star Belgrade).
Midfielders: Vanja Dragojevic (Partizan), Marko Grujic (AEK Athens), Nemanja Gudelj (Sevilla), Aleksandar Katai (Red Star Belgrade), Ivan Ilic (Torino), Luka Ilic (Real Oviedo), Filip Kostic (Juventus), Sasa Lukic (Fulham), Nemanja Radonjic (Red Star Belgrade), Lazar Randelovic (Vojvodina), Lazar Samardzic (Atalanta), Aleksandar Stankovic (Club Brugge).
Forwards: Luka Jovic (AEK Athens), Petar Ratkov (Red Bull Salzburg), Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus).
Thomas Tuchel’s final England squad of 2025 was also one of his most notable.
While the recall of Jude Bellingham was widely expected, decisions around the periphery of the squad offered some clues as to where he is looking as he turns his attentions to the 2026 World Cup.
Below, The Athletic's expert reporters have had their say on the key names included and excluded and analyse his more intriguing decisions.
GO FURTHER
Analysing Tuchel’s big England calls: Foden and Wharton in, Gibbs-White and Watkins out
As mentioned, Scott and Wharton are added in midfield at the expense of Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and AC Milan's Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Nick Pope was preferred to James Trafford in goal but withdrew after a concussion for Newcastle with Trafford coming back in, and Nico O'Reilly included at left-back at the expense of Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Attacking midfielders Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden return after starring for their clubs recently but the out-of-form striker Ollie Watkins misses out.
Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon is out after he picked up a hip injury, while Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi has reported for duty but is being assessed after a foot injury against AZ on Thursday.
Chelsea's Trevoh Chalobah has been added to the squad as potential cover for Guehi.
Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton has been included in the England squad for this month’s World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania, while there is a first call-up for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott.
Wharton has played just once for England’s senior team, a friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina ahead of Euro 2024, where he was named in England’s squad but did not feature at the tournament.
Scott has been capped 11 times for England’s Under-21 side and has been a regular for in-form Bournemouth this campaign, featuring in all 10 Premier League matches. Tuchel said of the additions on Friday:
💬 “We need to learn about (Wharton) in our environment, what he can bring to our squad and prepare ourselves if Elliot (Anderson) is maybe not able to play both 90 minutes.
“Alex deserves to be with us… he stepped really up and is a regular starter for Bournemouth. He came a long way, and he performed his way into this nomination. Hopefully he can prove us right and show us his talent and personality.”
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton).
Defenders: Dan Burn (Newcastle), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Reece James (Chelsea), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur), John Stones (Manchester City).
Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Alex Scott (Bournemouth), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace).
Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal).
With England already confirmed as World Cup qualification Group K winners, Serbia are fighting for second.
They currently lie in third, a point and a place behind Albania.
If Albania beat bottom-of-the-group Andorra in a match played at the same time as this one and Serbia lose, the Serbs would be knocked out.
The new head coach of Serbia is Veljko Paunovic, brought in to replace his predecessor Dragan Stojkovic, who was sacked on October 30.
Stojkovic, one of the best Serbian players of all time as a player, had spent around four-and-a-half years in charge, winning 26 of his 55 games in charge (47.27 per cent), losing 15 and drawing 14.
The 48-year-old Paunovic represented Serbia and Montenegro twice, scoring once, in his playing career, including two spells with Atletico Madrid.
As a manager, he has been in charge of the Serbian Under-18, U19 and U20 sides as well as English team Reading. Fun fact: he speaks six languages — Serbian, Russian, Macedonian, English, Spanish and German.
After losing 1-0 against group rivals Albania on October 11 in the last international break, Serbia needed a win by any means against Andorra three days later.
That's exactly what they got.
Guillaume Lopez gave the hosts a shock lead but that only served to wake Serbia up and they were level two minutes later via a Christian Garcia own goal.
In the second half, goals from strikers Dusan Vlahovic and then Aleksandar Mitrovic from the penalty spot wrapped things up for the favourites.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save head coach Dragan Stojkovic's job…
With England qualified, Thomas Tuchel will now have a chance to test players he feels can contribute to the group ethos, as well as playing around with finding his most effective starting team and formation.
It could get more ruthless before the nation rallies behind the national team next summer — but things are in a positive place.
Since making his England debut against Andorra in September, Anderson has started victories against Serbia, Wales and Latvia.
The 22-year-old, who previously played for Scotland’s junior teams, has been the preferred central midfield partner for Declan Rice. There is a belief the Anderson and Declan Rice partnership is here to stay.
It was a position that had a plethora of options, from Kobbie Mainoo to Curtis Jones and Angel Gomes, but their lack of consistency has enabled Anderson to leapfrog them in the pecking order.
As the World Cup approaches, Tuchel appears unlikely to tinker in midfield, allowing Anderson’s importance to grow. If he starts next to Rice again tonight, it will be another indication of his importance.
In England's most recent match, it was a five-star performance and result away in Latvia (you can recap how things happened with our play-by-play coverage here.)
Anthony Gordon's goal put the visitors ahead just before the half-hour mark and captain Harry Kane netted twice moments before the break to give his side a commanding lead.
An unfortunate Maksims Tonisevs own goal around the hour mark and Eberechi Eze's powerful low strike wrapped things up in style.
The three points officially secured their qualification for the 2026 World Cup as Group K winners, with six wins from six and 18 points from a possible 18.
They will be defending that 100 per cent record in qualifying today.
We want to hear from you on The Athletic.
Have you already booked your trip to next summer’s World Cup? What was Thomas Tuchel's worst call in naming his latest squad? And what is their best starting line-up?
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England play on Sunday against Albania in their. final game of the World Cup qualifying group stage.
That match is at 5pm GMT, 12pm noon ET, 9am PT.
Elsewhere in Group K that day, Serbia face Latvia, and elsewhere Italy play Norway.
Colombia clash with Uruguay in the pick of the international friendlies to close out the week.
There is a sizeable slate of international fixtures today, including both World Cup qualifiers (WCQs) and international friendlies (IFs).
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Wembley Stadium, London
Nestled in the north-west of the English capital city, the current Wembley opened in 2007 on the site of the old stadium, which had stood from 1923 to 2003.
It holds 90,000 people, making it the biggest ground in the UK and the second-largest in Europe after Barcelona's Camp Nou.
Thomas Tuchel will be hoping the home fans create a raucous and intimidating atmosphere as Serbia descend on the home of English football.