England vs Latvia - World Cup qualifier: TV channel, prediction, team news and lineups

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·23 March 2025

England vs Latvia - World Cup qualifier: TV channel, prediction, team news and lineups

Latvia will become England's 92nd different opposition at senior men's international level on Monday.

The Three Lions are unbeaten in 29 World Cup qualifiers on home soil, their most-recent such defeat coming at the hands of Germany in 2000, the final game ever to be played at the old Wembley.

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England vs Latvia Preview

Will England make it two wins out of two to commence World Cup qualification? On Friday night, in Thomas Tuchel's first match in charge, the Three Lions did enough to defeat Albania 2-0 at Wembley. Just 20 minutes into his first-ever senior international appearance, Myles Lewis-Skelly slotted home an inch-perfect Jude Bellingham through-ball, thereby becoming the youngest-ever debutant to score for England. Then, just when Albania harboured hopes of an equaliser, Harry Kane expertly curled in a second 13 minutes from time, thereby making the points secure.

Having featured at all seven World Cups since USA '94, England are widely-expected to cruise through this qualification campaign, with Serbia and Andorra the other nations rounding-out Group K. More interesting to track is how this team evolves under Tuchel given that, after this one, there are just ten fixtures to go before he'll be naming a squad to take to North America in June 2026. Back to this game, a very routine home win is forecast at Wembley.

Latvia meantime did also make a winning start to their campaign on Friday, with Dario Šits the only scorer as they defeated Andorra at Estadi Nacional. Prior to this, the Baltic nation had won only eight of their last 59 qualification fixtures, while it's now more than two decades since their sole major tournament appearance, featuring at Euro 2004 very much against the odds.

To emphasis their minnow status, Paolo Nicolato's team finished bottom of their UEFA Nations League C group last year, accumulating just four points from fixtures against North Macedonia, Armenia and Faroe Islands. Thus, in a year's time, they'll take on Gibraltar in a two-legged play-off, seeking to avoid dropping into the competition's bottom tier. Thus, England should very much swat Latvia aside come Monday night in North London.

England vs Latvia Head-to-Head Record

These two nations have never previously met.

England Team News

Thomas Tuchel made some interesting selection decisions on Friday, handing debuts to Dan Burn and Myles Lewis-Skelly in defence, while Marcus Rashford featured for England for the first time in a year, with Phil Foden getting the nod on the opposite side. Elsewhere, Curtis Jones completed the midfield trio, so it'll be interesting to see how many changes Tuchel makes this time.

Anthony Gordon is a doubt, having suffered a suspected hip injury right on full time against Albania, but Jarrod Bowen and Eberechi Eze are both options, should he wish to switch his winger around. At the back, Marc Guéhi was a mainstay at the Euros last summer, but Burn and Ezri Konsa were impressive three nights ago. Lastly, Kyle Walker took his tally to 94 international caps, still going 14 years on from his debut, but could Reece James or Tino Livramento get the nod at right-back?

England predicted lineup vs Latvia: (4-3-3): Pickford; James, Konsa, Burn, Lewis-Skelly; Rice, Jones, Bellingham; Bowen, Rashford, Kane.

England Player to Watch vs Latvia

Harry Kane now has 70 international goals to his name. Only 19 men of any nationality have more while, in terms of Europeans, he's only behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku, Robert Lewandowski, Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis and Miroslav Klose, looking to draw level with the latter by scoring here.

Latvia Team News

Paolo Nicolato's team are no strangers to defending in a low block, likely to deploy a 5-4-1, having switched to that system since the Italian took over a year ago. They travel without Aberdeen defender Kristers Tobers and star striker Roberts Uldriķis, who's scored eight times for the national team, both due to injury.

In terms of who will feature, 28-year-old Krišjānis Zviedris made his debut in goal in Andorra, while Antonijs Černomordijs will captain the side in defence, alongside Daniels Balodis of St Johnstone. Fellow centre-back Vitālijs Jagodinskis plays his club football for Visakha in Phnom Penh and, we haven't checked, but it's safe to assume that no player for the Cambodian Premier League has ever played at Wembley before.

In attack, Jānis Ikaunieks and Vladislavs Gutkovskis are the only squad members into double-figures for international goals, both likely to be chosen over Eduards Dašķevičs up front.

Latvia predicted lineup vs England: (5-2-2-1): Zviedris; Birka, Jurkovskis, Černomordijs, Balodis, Cigaņiks; Saveļjevs, Meļņiks, Ikaunieks, Zelenkovs; Gutkovskis.

Latvia Player to Watch vs England

Dario Šits came off the bench to bag the winner in Andorra la Vella on Friday, his second international goal in only four caps, having also been on target against Faroe Islands at Tórsvøllur in October.

England vs Latvia Prediction

As alluded to throughout, we cannot see beyond a very routine England victory, with the Three Lions swatting Latvia aside at Wembley: England 4-0 Latvia.