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Key events
Croatia start with some familiar faces in their line-up: Manchester City duo Mateo Kovačić and Joško Gvardiol, Brighton defender Luka Vušković, and erstwhile Everton and West Ham striker Nikola Vlašić. Luka Modrić, who suddenly looked all of his 41 years during last month’s seven-goal hammering, is relegated to the bench, but will earn his 207th cap if he gets on tonight.
The headline news is obviously Jordan Pickford’s 93rd cap Harry Kane’s record-breaking 126th appearance for England. Thomas Tuchel makes three changes to the side that started the 3-0 win over Czechia: Dan Burn, Declan Rice and Anthony Gordon come in for Marc Guéhi, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Eberechi Eze. For the record, Pickford will still need another 32 caps if he’s to equal Peter Shilton’s all-time goalkeeping total for England.
The teams
England: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Burn, Hall, Rice, Anderson, Jude Bellingham, Gordon, Kane, Rogers.
Subs: Trafford, Steele, Gibbs-White, White, Hill, Branthwaite, Jobe Bellingham, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Ngumoha, Eze, King.
Croatia: Livakovic, Stanisic, Vuskovic, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Vlasic, Smolcic, Baturina, Sucic, Matanovic, Misic.
Subs: Pandur, Kotarski, Caleta-Car, Galesic, Majer, Beljo, Modric, Budimir, Mario Psaslic, Hrgovic, Marco Pasalic, Soticek.
Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark)
Preamble
A whopping 40 days ago, this happened …
… and while Croatia will be desperate to summon some sort of face-saving, reputation-salvaging, self-respect-restoring response tonight, they’d do well to consider that: (a) it’s not very likely, if their defenders again randomly skitter around like they did in Rijeka; (b) it’d almost certainly make not a jot of difference to their borderline-non-existent hopes of making the quarters†, and; (c) hey, they’ve always got the Euro 2008 qualifiers and the 2018 World Cup semi to keep them warm at night. So in that three-part sense, this is a bit of a non-event, though tell that to Harry Kane, who will break the all-time appearance record for the Three Lions‡. Kick-off at Wembley is at 7.45pm GMT. It, almost exclusively for England, is on!
†: After the first four matches in Group A3, the table looks like this …
1. Spain P4 GD+7 Pts 12
2. England P4 GD+11 Pts 9
3. Croatia P4 GD-10 Pts 3
4. Czechia P4 GD-8 Pts 0
… which means Spain are definitely through. England are as well, if we’re all being honest with each other. They can only be pipped by Croatia if they lose both of their final two matches in this November break (tonight’s game, then away on Sunday night to Spain) while Croatia win both of theirs (this one, then their hosting of Czechia) and even then, because things would go to the head-to-head, Croatia would have to beat England tonight by a minimum of seven goals.
‡: The all-time England men’s appearance list …
125: Peter Shilton, Harry Kane
120: Wayne Rooney
115: David Beckham
114: Steven Gerrard
108: Bobby Moore
107: Ashley Cole
106: Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard
105: Billy Wright
96: Kyle Walker
94: John Stones
92: Jordan Pickford
91: Jordan Henderson
90: Bryan Robson
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