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Half-time: Albania 0-0 England
It’s been a good test for England in the first 45 minutes in Tirana. The big experiment has been John Stones in midfield and that’s not gone brilliantly. Packing the middle of the pitch and pushing Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham forward is the intention but this is the first time Tuchel has tried it and it shows a bit. Arber Hoxha looks a real threat down Albania’s left and Jarell Quansah is having to keep a close eye on him on his debut.
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Updated at 12.48 EST
45+1 min: Eze carries the ball a long way upfield but can’t find a pass. England win it back and ping it around midfield for the remainder of the one minute added on.
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45 min: Bowen and Kane combine on the edge of the area but Rice is flagged offside again when the ball goes into the area. Tuchel is not best pleased. The promise of the first few minutes has faded and it often looks a bit disjointed in the final third for England now.
Jarrod Bowen runs with the ball past Naser Aliji and Kristjan Asllani. Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 12.49 EST
43 min: Kane heads away another Asllani corner. The ball goes back into the box and Quansah is there this time. Bellingham then bears down on the Albania area and lays it off to Rice, who had already made his run and is offside.
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41 min: The very lively Hoxha picks the ball up and runs at Stones and Quansah again. It takes both of them to stop him but England still concede a corner. Stones heads away.
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39 min: Wharton is booked after sliding in on Asllani in midfield. He gets the ball but a good chunk of Asllani’s right ankle too.
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37 min: Great save by Strakosha! Bellingham feeds it to Bowen on the right, inside the area, and his right-footed shot is low and the Albania keeper gets a glove to it. Wharton’s corner is met by Quansah but his header is tame and gathered by Strakosha.
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35 min: Rice’s free-kick is aimed at Burn but he can’t divert it goalwards and Albania clear. Bajrami gives up on Balliu’s over-hit ball down the right.
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34 min: That corner comes to nothing but Albania sustain their attack for a minute longer until Bajrami glides past O’Reilly and Rice nips in to win it back for England. Kane wins a free-kick in the Albania half after Hoxka pulls him back. Rice will deliver again …
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32 min: Jittery moments for England as Hoxha darts inside and runs at Quansah. Stones comes across and skews his clearance out for a corner. The Dinamo Zagreb winger is proving Albania’s biggest attacking threat.
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30 min: A promising Albania move forward is stopped in its tracks when the linesman flags for offside for Uzuni when he looked on.
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28 min: Bellingham spins Ramadani about 40 yards from goal and England have a free-kick in a central position. Rice clips it into the box and Strakosha picks up the loose ball.
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27 min: Balliu’s first contribution is to ping a ball down the right for Bajrami to chase but O’Reilly sticks to his task and the danger is snuffed out.
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25 min: Hysaj is down and has taken off his shinpads. His game is done. He’s been struggling for a few minutes with some sort of issue. On comes Ivan Balliu in his place.
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23 min: This time Bowen tries to run inside his full-back but Bellingham isn’t expecting it and passes the ball behind him and out of play. Whoops. Eze and Rice aren’t quite clicking on the other wing either.
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21 min: Eze comes infield off the left flank before Bellingham and Bowen combine. The latter’s low cross fails to find an England shirt. He’s being encouraged to put balls into the box but his right being his weaker foot, they often don’t have the quality.
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19 min: Hysaj tries his luck from distance and it flies just over the bar! Henderson was worried enough to fling himself across goal. The effort came after Bellingham had timed a sliding challenge to perfection to deny Hoxha his own shooting opportunity on the edge of the box.
Literally one for the cameras. Photograph: Armando Babani/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 12.38 EST
17 min: The game settles back into attack v defence. England’s play has slowed a bit but O’Reilly brings some energy down the left. Kane lofts a ball into the box and it eventually falls to Rice who can’t get over his half-volley and it drifts over the bar.
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15 min: Ramadani is the first in the book for crunching into Kane high up the field. Bit of a sore one on the back of the striker’s heels.
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13 min: Wharton’s corner is aimed at Quansah but Stones is penalised for wrestling Laci to the floor elsewhere in the box.
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12 min: Bowen has seen a fair bit of the ball, mostly out on the right touchline. Eze, not as natural a winger, is yet to get into the game out on the left. There’s been plenty of movement and the Albania midfield are a bit unsure of themselves. Rice forces a corner for England.
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10 min: Bellingham on the right and Rice on the left are free to wander into attacking positions with Stones and Wharton holding. Albania are just about keeping it tight.
Jude Bellingham runs at the Albanian defence. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 12.18 EST
8 min: It’s very fluid from England. Half the players are involved in a move upfield. O’Reilly finds Kane on the edge of the box and his first-time ball is too close to Strakosha with Rice running in behind. Slick.
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6 min: Hoxha wins a corner for Albania. Asllani takes and Bowen is there at the near post to head clear. That got the crowd up.
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4 min: Rice tests Strakosha. Bowen’s cross is headed up in the air and the Arsenal man controls the ball on his chest and hits it as it drops but the Albania goalkeeper gets down easily to gather.
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3 min: Interesting shape from England. It’s a back three of Quansah, Burn and O’Reilly in possession with Stones moving into midfield alongside Wharton.
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Updated at 12.04 EST
1 min: Bowen’s cross is hooked up and out for a corner by Hysaj. Wharton takes short, Rice finds Bellingham and his cross (or shot?) drifts out of play. Quick start from England.
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Kick-off
Declan Rice sends it back to Dean Henderson to pump upfield and we’re under way.
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A duet of well-dressed blokes with microphones lead us (well, not me) in renditions of both anthems. Classy.
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Berat Djimsiti and Harry Kane head out with their pennants. Kick-off in England’s final game of 2025 is moments away.
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Played 7, won 7, conceded 0. Easy as you like for England so far in qualifying. Beyond this group, they’ve now kept nine consecutive clean sheets in competitive matches – only two teams have done that in Europe before.
Spain are the only other team in European qualifying yet to concede a goal. For what it’s worth, Liechtenstein are the only team yet to score.
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Sylvinho has done a pretty fine job at Albania since taking over as manager in 2023. They qualified for Euro 2024 as group winners and gave Spain, Italy and Croatia a good run for their money at the finals despite exiting in the group.
Now they are two games away from a first World Cup having confirmed their place in March’s Uefa playoffs by finishing second behind England in this group.
A lot of their squad play in Italy but names familiar to British viewers include Nedim Bajrami of Rangers and the former Brentford goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha. Burnley’s Armando Broja, who turned down an England Under-21 call-up in 2019, is on the bench.
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Thomas Tuchel is hoping nobody does a Wayne Rooney today (or indeed a Cristiano Ronaldo) and gets themselves sent off and a suspension for the tournament next summer.
No red cards please. We are through and we are in a position with last man then the player holds the shirt he gets the red card. If there’s a doubt then it would be smarter not to do it.
If he goes in the last man example and if we can avoid it no red card of course. But I don’t want to make it too big a subject because then you have a cloud above you. But if you have the choice don’t do it.
Wayne Rooney gets himself a ban for the first two games of Euro 2012 in a qualifier against Montenegro. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PAShare
Harry Kane could make a bit of history today. He’s on 76 goals for England and will draw level with Pelé’s total for Brazil if he scores today. Here’s a look at how the Bayern Munich striker compares to some of the (selected) greats at international level:
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Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) 143 goals
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Lionel Messi (Argentina) 115
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Pelé (Brazil) 77
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Harry Kane (England) 76
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Gerd Müller (West Germany) 68
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Ronaldo (Brazil) 62
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Diego Maradona (Argentina) 34
So, what about the Ballon d’Or, Harry? David Hytner heard his answer to that question this week:
I could score 100 goals this season, but if I don’t win the Champions League or the World Cup, you’re probably not going to win the Ballon d’Or. It’s the same with Haaland, it’s the same with any player. You have to be winning those major trophies.
We’re in great shape at Bayern Munich so that maybe makes the odds a little bit more in my favour. Same with England. Hopefully, if things go my way for club and country then I’m definitely going to be in the conversation for a trophy like the Ballon d’Or.
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In other World Cup qualifying news, Portugal have joined England and friends at next summer’s finals after a 9-1 thumping of poor Armenia – without the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo. Hint hint. Bruno Fernandes and João Neves got hat-tricks.
And the Republic of Ireland have snuck into the playoffs at the last! Troy Parrott completed his hat-trick with a 96th-minute winner to deny Hungary in Budapest this afternoon.
Troy Parrott is the hero for Ireland as they beat Hungary in an amazing game in Budapest. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 11.47 EST
Team news
Jude Bellingham is among seven changes to the England team that beat Serbia on Thursday. Adam Wharton makes his first senior start in midfield alongside Bellingham and Declan Rice.
Dean Henderson replaces Jordan Pickford in goal, while Jarell Quansah makes his debut at right-back, with Dan Burn partnering John Stones in the centre of defence.
Eberechi Eze and Jarrod Bowen play either side of Harry Kane in attack. Alex Scott could earn his first cap off the bench.
Confirmed lineups
Albania (4-3-3): Strakosha; Hysaj, Ismajli, Djimsiti, Aliji; Laci, Asllani, Ramadani; Bajrami, Uzuni, Hoxha.
Subs: Dajsinani, Simoni, Balliu, Cake, Ajeti, Manaj, Asani, Tuci, Pajaziti, Berisha, Daku, Broja.
England (4-3-3): Henderson; Quansah, Stones, Burn, O’Reilly; Rice, Wharton, Bellingham; Bowen, Kane, Eze.
Subs: Pickford, Trafford, James, Chalobah, Spence, Henderson, Anderson, Scott, Rogers, Saka, Foden, Rashford.
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Preamble
Well, you could call this a dead rubber. England sealed their place at next summer’s World Cup a whole month ago. Albania themselves secured a spot in March’s playoffs with a win against Andorra on Thursday.
But with the World Cup just seven months and a few games away, there is no such thing as a dead rubber for the England players looking to convince Thomas Tuchel that they deserve a seat on his plane to North America. Not even the likes of Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden can be sure of a place in the squad until it is named in May.
England have won on all three of their previous trips to Tirana, the latest being a 2-0 victory under Gareth Southgate on the way to qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. It was lockdown. Mason Mount scored. Kalvin Phillips was in midfield. Jesse Lingard came off the bench. Those were different times.
It’s a 5pm (GMT) kick-off today at the Air Albania Stadium. I’d like to hear your thoughts on how England have done in 2025 under Tuchel, how you expect them to fare at the World Cup and who you think should – or should not – be on that plane. Views from Albania are also appreciated. Get in touch via email.
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