England ended the first international break of the Thomas Tuchel era with a confident 3-0 victory over Latvia on Monday.
Reece James’ glorious free kick opened the scoring in the first half, before Harry Kane and Ebereche Eze found the back of the net after the break to secure a second consecutive victory to kick off the Three Lions’ bid to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
How the game unfolded
The game began in predictable fashion as Latvia sat deep in a low block, challenging England to find a way through the crowd of bodies. Jude Bellingham saw an effort blocked and Jarrod Bowen lashed wide.
At the other end, Latvia were nearly handed a shock opener. A mix-up between Jordan Pickford and Marc Guehi gave Vladislavs Gutkovskis a sight of an empty net at a tight angle, but the Latvia striker could not steer his effort on target.
A stunning save from Krisjanis Zviedris prevented Ezri Konsa from scoring 20 minutes in. Jude Bellingham’s header was deflected into the danger zone and the stopper flexed some stunning reflexes to tip Konsa’s thunderous follow-up over the bar.
England were denied a penalty on the half-hour mark after Zviedris collided with Jarrod Bowen, but there was simply no stopping a sensational free kick from James in the 38th minute. Chelsea’s captain bent a simply sublime effort into the top corner to put England ahead at the break.
Kane bent wide 60 minutes in with England’s first real chance of the second half, but he could hardly miss soon after when Declan Rice’s low cross found him unmarked at the back post for a simple tap-in.
Substitute Eze added a third with 15 minutes to go, driving at his full-back before cutting inside and sending a deflected effort beyond the helpless Zviedris.
Morgan Rogers stung the gloves of the Latvia goalkeeper as the clock ticked on, but the Three Lions were forced to settle for the three goals and a routine victory.
On the rare occasions in which they did not have the ball, England lined up in the same 4-2-3-1 formation we saw against Albania. However, we saw something new here as the Three Lions adopted a 3-2-4-1 setup when attacking.
Myles Lewis-Skelly drifted in from left-back to sit alongside Declan Rice in midfield, allowing Jude Bellingham to roam forwards and dovetail with Morgan Rogers in attacking midfield. The Real Madrid forward was typically influential and once again retained his central role in this new system.
It was refreshing to see Tuchel try something new against a side who, with all due respect, were always going to sit deep and try grind out an ugly draw. A common criticism of the Gareth Southgate era was the use of too many defensive players in games like this, but clearly the new boss is doing things differently.
After the Albania game, Tuchel made no attempts to hide his disappointment towards the performances of Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden, who he argued did not offer enough movement in wide areas.
Foden was dropped to the bench here but Rashford was allowed to retain his place and given the chance to respond. In the first half, the Aston Villa loanee was involved in nearly every dangerous run in behind the Latvia defence, although the end product when he got there often left plenty to be desired as he saw cross after cross knocked back.
Rashford moved over to the right wing after the break and it was much of the same. It was notable that Eze, just minutes after entering the game on the left side, found himself celebrating a goal after a more direct run – the sort of thing Tuchel was crying out for.
England finished the game having attempted a whopping 41 crosses across the 90 minutes. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that approach, but it does require accuracy from those pumping the ball into the box.
Just 11 of those crosses ended up finding an England head, with Rashford completing just three of his 11 attempted as the team’s attack, while always in control, often looked to be more hopeful than anything else.
Things got a bit more direct after the hour mark and that’s where England’s second and third goals came from as Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze took the game to the Latvia defence, which is what Tuchel wanted from Rashford and Foden against Albania.
For the first time since September 2022, Reece James started an England game. This was just the Chelsea captain’s third international appearance in nearly three years, with injuries having ravaged his past few seasons.
To mark his return, James channelled his inner David Beckham to unleash a truly exceptional curled free kick, netting his first goal for England in the process.
During their shared time at Chelsea, James was a marauding wing-back, but he was tasked with a more disciplined role here as the right-sided centre-back in a defensive three. Unsurprisingly, he was not tested much, but he certainly did what he could to stake his claim for a permanent starting spot.
Check out the player ratings from England 3-0 Latvia here.
