England vs New Zealand LIVE: Thomas Tuchel selects Kane and Watkins to start in World Cup warm-up | OneFootball

New Zealand XI confirmed

Here is how the All Whites line up with Tim Payne (of social media fame) and Chris Wood in from the start.

Alan Smith6 June 2026 20:05

Cole's key to World Cup glory

Former England international Joe Cole believes the national team's prospects at the upcoming 48-team World Cup in North America could hinge on their ability to "master the arts" of set-pieces.

"Fifa have come out and said that they’re going to be stringent, they’re going to be pulling up on things," Cole told the Press Association. "The referees have lost it in the last two years, and it’s allowed for some nonsense to go on, actually.”

However, he cautioned: "But if Fifa don’t crack down on it and let it go and it be a free-for-all, then the team that masters the arts best will be in with a better chance. But it sounds like they’re going to be a little bit more strict on it, they’re always important, most set-pieces."

Blink and you'll miss it

A leading sleep expert has warned England’s players to stay away from sleeping pills as they aim for World Cup glory this summer.

Sleep expert James Wilson, who has worked at Coventry, West Ham, Rotherham and Lincoln and is known as the ‘Sleep Geek’, said the pills are counter-productive for good sleep.

“Based on talking to players, both in the men’s and women’s game, I just hope people aren’t taking sleeping pills,” he told the Press Association.

“They are not generally good for your sleep and they are not good for recovery so that is why they are not a good idea in football.”

Tuchel on Florida surface

“I just saw it now,” the England boss said on Friday night. “It will not affect my team selection because what I have heard until now is that it should be OK and we want it, of course, to be OK.

“I saw just a photo from your colleague that made me a little bit worried and concerned, but let’s decide when we are there.

“If there are any issues, we can always react to it. The plan is tomorrow to play 45, 45 minutes with two complete teams, to expose everyone to the same amount of minutes.

“Then we can continue the next three days with the same load of training. That is the plan, and at the moment we stick to the plan.”

Special report - Inside the world of Gianni Infantino: ‘The ass-kissing of Trump got us nowhere’

If Gianni Infantino is unlikely to now tell us how he feels before this World Cup, we can see how he is when he’s in Donald Trump’s presence.

The Fifa president looks excited. The hand is often extended from the heart, in that classic gesture of the evangelising Blair-like statesman. Trump smiles on, two leaders together. Those who have been close to such meetings say it is a mix of “fawning and adoration” from Infantino, which is also why there is increasing disquiet among numerous senior Fifa figures. They don’t like how this has been going.

The relationship is one of a few areas where even someone as brazen as Infantino might now be caught in a bind.