England vs Latvia

Wembley Stadium sets the stage for a ‘David vs Goliath’ 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying encounter between England and Latvia.

Thomas Tuchel enjoyed a dream touchline debut as England saw off Albania 2-0 at Wembley, with 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly becoming the youngest-ever player to score on his England debut. They now make a swift return to the national stadium to face the only other team in World Cup qualifying Group K with three points, Latvia, in what will be a historic occasion as it marks the first-ever meeting between the two nations. With 136 places separating the nations in FIFA’s world rankings, the Three Lions are hot favorites to maintain their unbeaten home run in World Cup qualifiers dating back to October 2000 (W26, D3). Impressively, 12 of the last 15 of those victories came with a clean sheet, and history favors Tuchel to continue that trend.

On the other hand, Latvia must punch above their weight to build on a narrow 1-0 victory against Andorra at the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign. However, the visitors have never beaten a team ranked inside FIFA’s current top-ten (D2, L21), highlighting the size of the task awaiting them in London. Despite winning their last two qualifying matches, they’ve never reached the World Cup finals. Yet, they could make it three away wins in a row for the first time in the nation’s history, though both those previous victories came against sides ranked below the 170th place. On a positive note, they’ve not lost any of their last five World Cup qualifying games on the road (W2, D3).