England’s World Cup Qualifying Finale: Three Lions Secure The Perfect Eight | OneFootball

England rounded off their World Cup qualifying in perfect style, defeating the Serbians with control at Wembley before finding two moments of world class brilliance to see off a defensively resilient Albania in Tirana.

With eight wins from eight, twenty two goals scored and no goals conceded, how did Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions get on in the final men’s international break of 2025?

England 2-0 Serbia

With qualification for next year’s World Cup already secured after a 5-0 win away in Latvia in the October international break, this game at Wembley felt like a dead rubber with nothing much to play for, and that reflected in the general performance of England.

In the first half, as expected really, they had plenty of control and plenty of possession. Serbia did try to press in the early stages but eventually sat into this compact mid block. With not much on the line for England as a team, the zip in the passing just wasn’t quite there to begin with, nor was the intensity. But eventually England’s quality found a way through with Bukayo Saka scoring a beautiful goal off his left foot to beat Predrag Rajkovic. Funnily enough, soon after scoring, Saka signalled to the bench about an issue where many thought he picked up some sort of injury. But instead, he wanted to change his footwear!

The first half eventually just fizzled out with that similar pattern of England control and possession, with not much of tempo or rhythm. But England were certainly comfortable and calm.

Into the 2nd half, Serbia did have a bit more of a go and even created some good moments which would’ve given them more confidence to attack England’s defence. But unfortunately for them it didn’t result in a goal. As for England, the performance was very similar to the 1st half where energy and tempo was low, the intensity just wasn’t quite there but they did have lots of possession and total control of things with the ball.

Not much really changed for England in terms of that intensity and energy until the likes of Jude Bellingham, Eberechi Eze and Phil Foden came on in the 65th minute. Particularly Foden, he replaced Kane up top but because he isn’t a traditional number 9 and is also a very clever technical player, he was getting into those small pockets between the Serbian centre backs and midfielders which caused Serbia a bit of an issue to deal with.

The second goal didn’t come until late in the 90th minute, but it highlighted exactly what somebody like Foden is fantastic at. Receives the ball in space around the centre circle on the half turn, drives with it directly before setting up Eze who found the top corner sensationally, and that rounded off a quite comfortable night at Wembley for England despite a couple of scares in the second half.

Albania 0-2 England

On paper, this definitely seemed like a game many people would’ve expected England to win very comfortably in Tirana on Sunday evening. But it was anything but comfortable. With the top two places in Group K already secured, neither side had anything to play for. But both sides certainly delivered a fantastic game when it comes to entertainment value.

England were the side who got off to a positive start. They zipped the ball around beautifully despite the grass being a bit longer than usual, the players were making clever movements and rotations to help create space and that resulted in a couple of big chances where Albania were able to stop England getting an early lead.

After a tricky 15 minutes or so, Albania were able to settle down and they were able to organise themselves into a solid mid block structure and they were also physically battling very well in the midfield. Albania had good success in key duels and that allowed them to transition from defence to attack very quickly where they got at the England defence with direct play and speed in wide areas. Particularly down England’s right hand side, Albania had plenty of success in the first half. But no goals were produced and it was goalless at half time.

The 2nd half came and the first 10 minutes definitely belonged to Albania. They were faster out of the traps, got into those wide areas again, created opportunities but the big difference was the fact they forced Dean Henderson into work, something Serbia didn’t really do against Jordan Pickford at Wembley a few days prior. But despite this excellent spell where England were still asleep, Albania just couldn’t find the back of the net.

Eventually Thomas Tuchel’s men got going, but it was clear the German coach wanted more from his side and the substitutions were yet again key to changing the flow and direction of the game in Tirana. Shortly after an hour into the game, Thomas Tuchel called on the quality of Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden to help inspire England to find quality to break down Albania’s defence and it didn’t take long for an impact to be made.

A good delivery came in from the corner an Albanian defender flicked it on and Harry Kane was there to pounce on the opportunity which finally saw England breach the stubborn Albanian defence after 74 minutes. Straight after that goal came, Tuchel turned to the bench again with Marcus Rashford and Elliot Anderson coming on and that was just yet again another demonstration of the strength and quality he can turn to whenever required to. Anderson brought a good calm energy into the midfield, Rashford brought that top class quality and speed, which was highlighted in the second goal.

Rashford has the ball on the inside of the left channel which he operates in regularly and excellently, he has the time to sharply move inwards and his cross to pick out Harry Kane was absolutely outstanding and Kane’s header back across goal into the far corner was equally as impressive. England had a full grip of the match, they got two goals through magnificent quality and they went on to seal victory in Tirana to round of a marvellous qualifying campaign where they didn’t concede a single goal.

England’s unreachable defence, is it a sign of things to come?

An important thing to certainly note is the fact the teams England faced during their qualifying campaign, they aren’t exactly world class sides of the elite level. But also you can only beat what is put in front of you, and England did exactly that.

In most of these games too, England had plenty of possession and total control in large parts which meant the opposition never really got the chance to create bucket loads of chances. But the fact England, even when there were these small spells like against Albania where they were on the back foot, were still committed to doing the dirty defensive dirty work and the goalkeeper making key saves when required to, is a fantastic solid foundation to build from heading into next year’s World Cup.

The teams at the World Cup will definitely be much stronger, they will ask England more questions than the sides England faced in qualifying. But that record of not conceding in qualifying isn’t just some fancy statistic, it highlights a solid foundation and base England can rely on if put onto the back foot. A solid defensive foundation is key to any team becoming successful, and having that confidence in your defenders as a team is also priceless.

Thomas Tuchel’s first year in charge of England, how has the German done so far?

Has the football always been pretty and exciting? No. Has there been bad moments? Yes. Are England heading in the right direction under Tuchel, heading into next year’s World Cup? Absolutely!

You can split the five camps he’s had so far in charge of England into two different phases. The first two was looking at what he had, working out the balance between the individual quality and who fits team dynamics the best. Then the second phase being the September, October and November camps where he had a rough idea of what to work with, how to set the team up, how to maximise the performances to the finest percentages. That’s something we saw especially in those September and October international camps. Then in this recent camp we saw the balance of the two truly come together.

What Thomas Tuchel achieved through all that too, he was getting the team to win the games even when trying to develop key principles, creating a hungry team dynamic, an attractive style of play. And just like the defensive foundation that has been built across the qualifying, just winning game after game is a good mental feeling to develop even if the sides England faced aren’t of that world class elite level.

Conclusion

Eight wins from eight, eight clean sheets, twenty two goals scored and a hungry team wanting to win. You can’t ask for much more really, this has been a perfect 2025 for Thomas Tuchel’s England.

The foundation is in place, the mentally is stronger than ever before, England have a coach pushing those standards higher than ever before in recent memory and the balance is also perfect. A big 2026 is waiting for the Three Lions where maybe, just maybe, history is waiting to be made.