England v Serbia: Line-ups, stats and preview
England host Serbia tomorrow night. Read our in-depth preview here...
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Preview for England v Serbia
England boss Thomas Tuchel will avoid experimentation tomorrow night when his side take on Serbia.
The Three Lions have already secured their place at the finals next summer but, with just one more camp before he has to name his squad for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Tuchel intends to go full throttle at Wembley.
Asked if the time for experimentation was over, Tuchel said: “Do you feel I was experimenting in the last matches?
“I didn’t feel that we were experimenting in the last two camps and we will not start in this camp. We take it serious, these are World Cup qualifiers. We want to build and keep on going.”
Marcus Rashford is expected to play some part tomorrow night with the on-loan Barcelona forward in excellent form for the Spanish champions.
Rashford hasn’t always produced his best for his country but Tuchel believes the environment at Barcelona will keep him sharp.
He said: “He is in a good place. He is in the squad because he deserves it. He needs to prove himself every three days at Barcelona which is good for us. He needs to prove himself in our camps which is the normal and right thing to do.
“There is still such a long time to go. My head isn’t at the World Cup yet. We deal with everything when it comes to it. He is in a good place now, he is competitive and that’s why he is here. He needs to prove the point in the next two matches.”
Serbia have not missed a World Cup since 2014 but their fate is now out of their hands.
Veljko Paunovic will be in the dugout at Wembley for the first time after taking over on a permanent basis from Dragan Stojkovic, who resigned following a crushing 1-0 defeat at home to Albania on October 11.
Zoran Mirkovic oversaw the 3-1 defeat of Andorra but Paunovic now has the tricky task of trying to get maximum points from games against England and Latvia.
If Serbia lose to England and, as expected, Albania win in Andorra, their elimination will be confirmed.
Team News for England v Serbia
England are without the injured Nick Pope, Anthony Gordon and Marc Guehi, although the Crystal Palace defender is still with the squad.
Trevoh Chalobah and James Trafford were called up yesterday.
Serbia will have to do without record goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic though injury. Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic is expected to lead the line.
Predicted line-ups for England v Serbia
England: Pickford; James, Konsa, Burn, O’Reilly; Rice, Anderson, Saka, Bellingham, Rashford; Kane
Serbia: Petrovic; Mimovic, Milenkovic, Pavlovic, Terzic; Gudelj, Lukic; Zivkovic, Samardzic, Kostic; Vlahovic
How to watch England v Serbia: TV and online streams
England versus Serbia kicks off at 7.45pm local time tomorrow night. It is being shown on ITV1 from 7pm.
The game can be streamed on the ITVX app.
Stats for England v Serbia
- England have won their last six matches against Serbia, including games against them when they were Yugoslavia (1986, 1987, 1989), Serbia and Montenegro (2003) and an independent nation (2024, 2025)
- England have won their last nine competitive matches and are looking to win 10 in a row for just the second time in their history – they won 10 consecutive European Championship qualifiers between September 2014 and October 2015
- Serbia have lost just three of their last 27 World Cup qualifying matches (W17 D7), though two have been in their last three, including a 5-0 hammering against England. Away from home, they are unbeaten in seven qualifiers (W5 D2)
Prediction for England v Serbia
It’s virtually a must-win fixture for Serbia and that will, hopefully, encourage the visitors to play a more expansive game.
That, in turn, could create space for England’s attacking players to flourish.
Tuchel’s men won the reverse game 5-0 and we could see something similar if England go for the jugular.
Prediction: England 3-0 Serbia