PREVIEW: England host Uruguay ahead of Summer World Cup | OneFootball

Uruguay and England will face off in a friendly at Wembley Stadium this Friday night as both sides begin their preparations for this Summer’s World Cup in North America.

Uruguay finished fourth in the CONMEBOL World Cup Qaulification table, behind Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia, but still being comfortably enough to secure them automatic entry to the tournament. England qualified with ease, topping Group K of the UEFA qualification system, winning all eight games without even conceding a goal. The Three Lions finished ten points ahead of second placed Albania who will now take on Poland in the play-off semi-final before facing the winner of Ukraine v Sweden in the final, should they beat Poland.

These two sides last met over a decade ago, in the 2014 World Cup, where Uruguay ran out 2-1 winners at the Arena Corinthians in Brazil thanks to a brace from Luis Suarez. There have only been ten other meetings between the two, with Uruguay coming out on top in five of them, England winning three times and three ending in a draw. England’s last win over La Celeste came in a friendly back in March 2006 at Anfield, with goals from Peter Crouch and Joe Cole overturning a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1 in front of 40,000 fans.

England gaffer Thomas Tuchel has named a 35-man squad ahead of this international break, with Jason Steele and Joe Garner hoping to win their first caps. Real Madrid full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was left out, whilst Leeds United forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned his first call-up for five years.

“It’s our the last camp [before the World Cup]. The last opportunity to impress and the last opportunity for players to compete for their ticket,” Tuchel said. Before adding that Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly, Elliot Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka will not join the squad until after Friday’s game. He went on to explain this by saying “These guys have played 3,500 minutes, some 4,000 minutes. More important than the pure number of minutes is some of these guys have played more minutes than the whole of last season.”

A sold-out Wembley awaits for this England side