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England starts their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup playing against Albania at home. This not only marks the start of World Cup qualifying but also marks manager Tuchel’s first game as England coach. This is the first time England will play a game under a new coach in almost nine years, after Gareth Southgate’s reign from 2016 to 2024.
The game will be shown live on ITV1 and STV in the UK, so the whole nation can watch England’s new dawn. The Three Lions will be hoping to make a winning start against a team 61 places below them in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings and start their journey towards the USA, Canada and Mexico next year.
England v Albania key information
• Date: Friday, March 21
• Kick-off time: 7.45pm GMT
• Venue: Wembley Stadium, London
• Referee: TBC
• VAR: TBC
• TV channels: ITV (UK) | STV (UK)
Odds: ENG (1/7) - DRAW (6/1) - ALB (18/1)
England team news
Thomas Tuchel announced his first England squad on Friday, March 14th, and the team included some old familiar faces and one or two new. Marcus Rashford is back in the squad after his promising form for loan club Aston Villa, and Jordan Henderson is back in the mix, too. Dan Burn receives his first England call-up as well as Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Cole Palmer was absent for Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal before the international break and has subsequently pulled out from the England squad with Nottingham Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White taking his place.
England predicted lineup v Albania (3-4-2-1)
Coach: Thomas Tuchel
Pickford; Walker, Guehi, Burn; James, Henderson, Rice, Lewis-Skelly; Bellingham, Gordon; Kane.
Albania team news
Albanian national team coach Sylvinho named his squad for the upcoming fixtures last Saturday. The squad is plagued by several injuries, which will see the team without defenders Mario Mitaj and Elseid Hysaj, midfielder Keidi Bare, and forwards Mirlind Daku, Taulant Seferi, and Anis Mehmeti.
There are first-time inclusions for Etnik Brruti, who recently changed his allegiances to Albania, and Juljan Shehu, who plays for Widzew Lodz in Poland.
Albania predicted lineup v England (4-3-3)
Coach: Sylvinho
Strakosha; Balliu, Ismaijli, Ajeti, Aliji; Laci, Ramadani, Asllani; Asani, Broja, Uzuni.
Where to watch on TV or live stream?
In the United Kingdom, you can watch the World Cup qualifier between England and Albania on ITV1 unless you are in Scotland, where the match is shown on STV. This means the match is on free-to-watch TV channels.
Head-to-Head record
England are an unknown quantity going into this game under their new manager. In their last five games, they lost once to Greece under Lee Carsley, and now under Tuchel, England hope to further their winning record.
Albania have one win in their last five games and come into this game against England with a less than favourable record against the Three Lions. The two teams have met each other six times in their history, with England winning all of them. The first game was back in 1989, and England won that 2-0. More recently, Albania and England met twice in 2021, being in the same qualification group for the last World Cup. England won away in Albania 2-0 before winning 5-0 when back at Wembley.
Odds for England v Albania
England are outright favourites to win this game. Betmaker’s bet365 has the Three Lions down at 1/7 to win the game, with Albania big outsiders at 18/1. A draw between the two is down at 6/1.
Odds correct at time of writing.