Thanks for reading Friday’s football news blog. Make sure to join Scott Murray for live updates from England v Uruguay at Wembley.

There are three derbies in the WSL tomorrow – Merseyside, Manchester and north London. Tom Garry looks at what he says will be “one of the most exciting weekends in the women’s football calendar” while asking the question: Will these games detract from each other?

Marcelo Bielsa v Luis Suárez. All has not been smooth sailing for the former Leeds manager during his time in charge of Uruguay. One particular sticky point came when Luis Suárez retired from international football and launched an attack on Bielsa.

Jonathan Wilson recounts what happened:

Uruguay went four World Cup qualifiers in a row without scoring. They won only two of the 10 games that followed the 2024 Copa América. In September 2024 Luis Suárez retired from the international game. He was 37 with his pace deserting him so to an extent it was to be expected. What was not was the remarkable attack he then launched on Bielsa, accusing him of isolating the players and creating a culture of fear.

He described how at half-time in Uruguay’s 2-0 win over Argentina in La Bombonera, Bielsa had brought Darwin Núñez to tears with the severity of his criticism. Suárez consoled him, Núñez had a much better second half, running far more than he had before the break. For Bielsa, Suárez said, that was evidence his approach had worked.

Bielsa admitted his authority had been undermined but there was a sense of drift, with World Cup qualification almost certain but a sense of unease. From the middle of last year, there had appeared to be some improvement, as Uruguay went unbeaten in three qualifiers and in three friendlies – albeit against unremarkable opposition – but the 5-1 USA defeat last November brought the doubts rolling in again.

Thanks Taha. There’s an interesting line coming out of the Senegal camp after they were stripped of their Afcon title last week …

And here’s Billy Munday again to see this thing through.

Here’s today’s Football Daily, written by yours truly.

“If nothing else, Salah increases Klopp’s options and allows him to ease the burden on his forward line. But given his form over the past five years whenever he has had a regular game, there are plenty of reasons to think Salah will thrive on Merseyside.”

Jonathan Wilson was spot on when writing about Salah in 2017.

Here’s your weekend guide:

It blew my mind surprised me this morning to learn that England haven’t played Uruguay since the 2014 World Cup. Of course, their highlight from that tournament remains Raheem Sterling’s goal that wasn’t against Italy. Yes, I yelped.

As Klopp mentions, he doesn’t really need to say it: the numbers explain Salah’s impact. The one that stands out to me is 44, the goal tally in his debut season. That’s still his best campaign in my opinion, outdoing 2024-25. There was the shock factor to it, the guy who didn’t make it at Chelsea dragging the early-Klopp team to their first Champions League final.

Hello, hello, hello. The latest Guardian Football Weekly is up, with plenty of disappointment in the air.

My work here is done. Taha Hashim is riding to the rescue.

I didn’t actually know it was non-league day tomorrow, before posting about Dulwich Hamlet below … Anyway, luminaries of the game such as Paul Merson say you should support non-league day. And I agree with Merse.

“Non-League day is kicking off with the massive IG derby tonight,” writes Shane.

“My beloved Woodford Town (IG8) are hosting local rivals Buckhurst Hill (IG9) at Ashtons at 7:45pm.”

Enjoy Shane and good luck.

Lionel Messi will become part of a rare sporting phenomenon when he plays in Inter Miami’s new stadium, with the MLS club announcing they will have a stand bearing the Argentinian’s name.

The “Leo Messi Stand” at the Nu Stadium will honour their 38-year-old captain as the club breaks from tradition where such tributes typically celebrate retired greats of the game.

“Traditionally, tributes look to the past. They are built from nostalgia. From memory. This one is different,” the club said in a statement on Friday.

“This one is born from the present. From what is happening right now. From what you feel every time Leo steps on to the pitch.”

The club are set to play their first game in the 26,700-seat stadium on 4 April when they host Austin FC. Having joined Inter Miami in 2023, Messi has guided the club co-owned by former England midfielder David Beckham to three trophies including the Leagues Cup in 2023, the Supporters’ Shield in 2024 and the MLS Cup last year.

The eight-times Ballon d’Or winner is also the club’s all-time leader in goals (82) and assists (53) in 94 appearances.

Messi scored his 900th career goal earlier this month to become the second player to reach the mark in elite men’s soccer after his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Reuters

The Iran men’s football team wore black armbands and held school bags as their anthem played before a match in Turkey on Friday, in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the war.

“I know Wales have improved and were a tad unlucky last night, but I feel Craig Bellamy is getting a free pass here,” emails Tim.

“They lost the initiative with the substitutions, and that’s down to him. I know the bench is thin, but it was a one-off game. Also, if a manager preaches calmness and Zen and then starts spouting about allowing chaos into the game, the media will usually, rightfully, hammer them. If Liam Rosenior had said this, it would be the subject of six successive articles!”

Dulwich Hamlet face Potters Bar at 3pm tomorrow, badly needing a result after recent defeats against Lewes and Billericay Town. I might go to that one, which if I’m honest, is the only reason I’m posting it.

Are you off to a game this weekend? Mail me.

Craig Bellamy predicted a sleepless night and he will not have been the only one. Most of Wales, population a little more than three million, will have pulled the curtains, struggling to shift the pervading sense of an opportunity missed. “My heart hurts,” he said approaching midnight in Cardiff and the gravity of it all may only fully sink in when Bosnia and Herzegovina, after prevailing in a World Cup playoff in the capital, host Italy on Tuesday for a place at this summer’s showpiece.

Wales fell at the penultimate hurdle, chalking up another near-miss after the anguish of another penalty shootout defeat, two years on from their last against Poland. Bellamy has breathed life into the team, renewing optimism and arming his players with naked belief, but this is unmistakably a blow. The easy thing to do at this juncture is preach about the green shoots but at this point nobody wants to think too hard about the merits of being promoted to the top tier of the Nations League or the home nations Euro 2028.

Here’s Jeff Rueter with some transfer news in the women’s game:

“US international forward Catarina Macario has joined the San Diego Wave on a deal worth $8m that runs through the 2030 season. The contract is reportedly the largest by total value in women’s soccer history.

“The Wave announced the move Friday. Sportico first reported that the Wave were nearing the acquisition last week. ESPN reported that Macario would join the NWSL side immediately rather than in the summer, on a transfer fee of about $300,000.”

“There’s a generation of Scotland fans who’ve never seen us qualify for a World Cup,” adds Clarke. “The task for us to make sure it’s not another 28 years before we qualify again.”

“Every game is important for the national team,” says Clarke, the Scotland head coach. They face Japan tomorrow and Ivory Coast on Tuesday, both friendlies. “These games are very important in preparing for the summer.

“Japan play in an interesting way. I’ve found them a really interesting team to watch in preparing for this match.

“My job is to make sure the players come out of these games for the end of the season with their clubs, and of course for the summer.

“Our record in friendlies is not so good. That’s something we’d like to address.

“We had a quiet day together on Monday [with the players] when we could reflect on what we achieved in the qualifying campaign … they went back to their clubs after qualifying to I haven’t seen them.

“It was nice to sit with them and say – ‘Look, this is what we’ve organised for the summer’.

“We sat last night, we watched all the [World Cup playoff] games, we had a split-screen with all the games on it and it was nice to be in a position not to be involved in those games … to finish top of our group, in front of really good Denmark and Greece sides, is something we should be proud of.”

Thanks Billy. Scotland’s Steve Clarke is speaking now before the friendly match against Japan at Hampden Park tomorrow.

Luke McLaughlin is back to take you through the afternoon’s news.

Iran’s men’s national football team wore black armbands and held schoolbags as their anthem played ahead of a match in Turkey on Friday in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the Iran war. Iran were playing a friendly against Nigeria in the resort town of Belek ahead of the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada where their participation is in doubt over the conflict.

The men lined up holding pink and purple bags with ribbons on them – a reference to the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School which Tehran says killed more than 175 people including children and teachers on the first day of joint US-Israeli strikes. “The players are holding the school bags close to their heart in remembrance of the 165 girls the Americans killed in an Iranian school,” a media official for the Iranian team told Reuters. US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation. Earlier this month, some of Iran’s women’s football team stayed quiet during the national anthem at an Asian Cup match, leading state TV in Tehran to brand them “traitors”.

The US president, Donald Trump, said earlier this month that while Iran’s national team were welcome to play in the US, it might not be appropriate for their “life and safety”.

Iran’s football federation said it is in discussions with football’s world governing body, Fifa, about moving its World Cup matches to Mexico from the US.

The squad will also play Costa Rica on Tuesday in another friendly in Turkey. Reuters

Football Weekly: Max Rushden, Jonathan Wilson, Nedum Onuoha and Will Unwin are on the pod today.

“It was the most important goal of my career,” said Sandro Tonali after his deadlock-breaker for Italy against Northern Ireland last night.

Tonali, 25, is yet to play at a World Cup for Italy – they face Bosnia and Herzegovina next Tuesday for a place in the finals – and he was only little when they won the trophy in 2006. “I was six but I remember it all very clearly,” he said last year. “It’s probably the only thing I remember from when I was a kid.”

Tonali’s national team boss, Gennaro Gattuso, was a childhood hero – he used to drink from a breakfast mug with Gattuso’s face on it. “That was my routine for many years. Then one day the cup broke and I begged my mother to glue it back together,” Tonali said. “When it was glued back together I had to leave it on a shelf. One day I’ll bring it to him and have him sign it.” AP

Thomas Tuchel will not field 11 of the 35 players in his bumper England squad for tonight’s friendly – they will come in for the second friendly against Japan on Tuesday, when as many as eight or nine other players will be released back to their clubs.

Those 11 are: D Henderson, Burn, Guéhi, Konsa, O’Reilly, Anderson, Rice, Rogers, Gordon, Kane and Saka.

That leaves a possible starting lineup tonight of: Pickford; Livramento, Stones, Maguire, Hall; Wharton, Mainoo; Madueke, Palmer, Rashford; Solanke.

Jude Bellingham will not feature tonight but has been training with the squad at Wembley.

Uruguay at a glance

Here’s a quick look at England’s friendly opponents before they meet at Wembley tonight:

• World ranking: 17

• Manager: Marcelo Bielsa

• Captain: José María Giménez

• Star player: Fede Valverde

• Qualifying record: P18 W7 D7 L4 (4th)

• World Cup Group H opponents: Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Spain

Let’s check the mailbag …

“Wales fan here. In one sense, I’m not too bothered about missing out on this tarnished World Cup in America. But I’m sad for the players. It would have been a great experience for the youngsters like Lawlor (what a talent he is, by the way), and a chance for the likes of Wilson, James and Brooks to show their skills at their peak. Of course, we would have had to beat Italy beforehand in any case, but I truly think we could have done it” – AJ

Dylan Lawlor, at 20, looked like he’d been playing international football for years, didn’t he? Edin Dzeko, at 40, could’ve been his dad. Lawlor kept him quiet, in open play at least …

The Strasbourg striker Joaquín Panichelli, the leading scorer in Ligue 1 this season, has injured his right knee while training ahead of Argentina’s friendly with Mauritania, the national team have said.

Local media reports said Panichelli has a suspected cruciate ligament tear, putting him in doubt for Argentina’s World Cup title defence in the summer.

“Joaquín Panichelli suffered a trauma to his right knee today and will be evaluated tomorrow with additional tests,” the Argentina team posted on X ahead of today’s friendly in Buenos Aires.

The 23-year-old, who made his debut for Argentina in November, had previously suffered a cruciate ligament tear in July 2023, which sidelined him for more than six months.

Panichelli is leading Ligue 1’s scoring charts with 16 goals this season. He has scored seven goals in his last nine appearances for Strasbourg in all competitions, helping them reach the quarter-finals of the Conference League. Reuters

Canada take on Iceland in a friendly in Toronto later. I went to Norwich last week to chat to Ali Ahmed, who says the World Cup co-hosts have the belief they can take on anyone this summer.

Their group games – against Italy/Bosnia-Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland – are being held in Toronto (where Ahmed grew up) and Vancouver (where he broke into professional football).

I want to win our group. And then from there, into the knockout rounds. It’s important to have that belief that we can play with anybody. Why not?

It’s going to be a perfect setup for me, playing in Toronto and Vancouver – I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Ahmed also discusses adapting to the Championship, playing during Ramadan and his teenage tour of Europe trialling for various, often lowly, youth teams.

Nicolás Tagliafico is preparing to play in his third World Cup for Argentina, who are defending their title in the US this summer. The Lyon left-back has been speaking to AFP ahead of Argentina’s friendly against Mauritania tonight – their Finalissima against Spain in Qatar was cancelled because of war in the Middle East.

Only Brazil and Italy have won two consecutive World Cups, but that was a long time ago. It’s a dream, like our dream of winning one, but we have to focus on the day-to-day, one match at a time, without getting carried away, because in the end, it’s the daily work that will pay off.

Argentina have got Algeria, Austria and Jordan in their group in June, basing themselves in Kansas City where their opener (and possibly their quarter-final) is being played.

Jamaica’s win over New Caledonia was the first international football match held in the Mexican city of Guadalajara since the violence triggered by the death of the cartel boss Ruben ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera last month. Both squads arrived at the stadium under heavy security. Military and police personnel with rifles escorted the teams from the moment they landed in the city.

Guadalajara will host four group stage matches of the World Cup, welcoming teams such as Mexico, Spain, and Uruguay. The South Korea and Colombia squads have also chosen Guadalajara as their bases.

While the city has wanted to use the World Cup as a platform to attract more tourism and has touched up local infrastructure and beautified public squares ahead of the competition, the imminent arrival of some 3m visitors has also put a spotlight on the cartel violence and thousands of missing people in the state of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital.

“We continue to reinforce security, especially within the state. We have re-established an institutional presence and security measures so that people feel safe and secure wherever they go. And the best way to feel safe is to see security personnel nearby,” said Jalisco’s secretary of public security, Juan Pablo Hernández, explaining that more than 2,000 officers were ensuring the safety of the teams and attendees at the stadium.

“Jamaica v New Caledonia is one of the most important test matches we have before the World Cup,” Hernández said, nodding that his staff has received training from the FBI and various police forces such as those of France and Colombia to address any unforeseen events related to insecurity.

Gianni Infantino has said the international football body is “analysing” the situation in Mexico, but downplayed concerns and emphasised he had “total confidence” in the country, its president Claudia Sheinbaum, and the authorities. Reuters

Thanks Luke. Let’s go global for a bit …

Four teams were in action in Fifa’s intercontinental playoffs in Mexico last night, with the winners progressing through to next week’s final round.

Bolivia came from behind to beat Suriname 2-1 thanks to Miguel Tercercos, a highly-rated 21-year-old at Santos in Brazil, converting a 79th-minute penalty. “I want to highlight the players’ character in never giving up. It’s a team that never considers anything lost and that today knew how to pull through,” said Bolivia’s head coach, Óscar Villegas. After navigating a travel route out of the Middle East, it is Iraq who stand in Bolivia’s way of a first World Cup finals since USA ‘94.

Then Jamaica (no longer coached by Steve McClaren) ended New Caledonia’s underdog story as Wrexham’s Bailey Cadamarteri scored the only goal in a 1-0 win. DR Congo await in the final round next Tuesday. “I think we put some smiles on our supporter’s faces and we know that the next match will be difficult but we’re up for the fight,” said Jamaica’s head coach, Rudolph Speid.

That’s all from me for now: Billy Munday is taking over.

Joey Lynch witnessed that 1-0 win for Australia v Cameroon in Sydney:

“Childhood fans of the venerable Fifa Series (making its debut in Sydney) will not remember the Socceroos 1-0 win over Cameroon as a classic of the genre. It will go down as a game decided when Jordy Bos’ quick wits in the 86th minute allowed him to seize upon a Paul Okon-Engstler pass that went through Ajdin Hrustić, and fire home, sparing the latter’s blushes for a penalty missed in the 70th minute.”

After Arsenal beat Chelsea and Manchester United lost to Bayern in the Women’s Champions League quarter-final first legs, it’s derby weekend in the Women’s Super League.

Merseyside, Manchester and north London derbies await:

Saturday
Everton v Liverpool
Manchester United v Manchester City
Arsenal v Tottenham

Sunday
Chelsea v Aston Villa
West Ham v London City Lionesses
Leicester v Brighton

If you missed it, read Suzanne Wrack’s exclusive on the WSL trophy redesign here:

When the sharp, stabbing pain in her abdomen became so severe she had to be substituted at half-time during a match last season Katja Snoeijs knew what she was experiencing was not “normal period pains”. And she was right.

The 29-year-old Everton and Netherlands striker has since been diagnosed with endometriosis, which affects one in 10 women. She says she counts herself lucky because she received her diagnosis within a year and was shocked to learn the average wait in the UK is nine years.

Is it too early to start plotting England’s inevitable route to World Cup glory? If nothing else it’ll stop me refreshing the internet to find out if Tim Sherwood is going to manage Spurs for the next three games before Dave from Chas & Dave comes in for the final Hail Mary.

Perhaps you’re focused on Arsenal coming second in everything, Everton finishing above Liverpool or the wild York/Rochdale title race in the National League. Take a weekend off and start dreaming of Gianni and Trump handing Harry Kane the trophy as the world burns.

Friday’s game with Uruguay may not get your pulse racing, but this is the true start of Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup countdown. Sixty years of hurt scans well in the song, at least. Once every 60 years feels OK. More common than Halley’s Comet, but sparse enough to feel life-changingly special. Twice in your lifetime, if you’re lucky.

Casemiro has dismissed the idea of reversing his decision to leave Manchester United this summer. The midfielder has been rejuvenated under Michael Carrick, scoring two goals in three Premier League matches.

United announced in January that Casemiro would leave the club when his contract expires after four seasons at Old Trafford and more than 150 appearances. Speaking after playing in Brazil’s 2-1 defeat by France the 34-year-old said: “I am still enjoying it a lot (in Manchester). It is huge, the affection that the fans have shown towards me. But I do really believe the decision is made and done. I believe it will be some difficult moments, these (final) games at Manchester United.”

Casemiro, who previously spent a decade at Real Madrid, had warm praise for Carrick and the impact the former midfielder has had since taking over from Ruben Amorim on an interim basis.

“Above all, Michael is a specialist in my position on the field, he was a truly great player,” said the Brazilian. “That makes everything much easier and he is always talking to us. I feel like we are in a good dynamic right now in Manchester and my objective now is to get the club back into the Champions League.”

United have won seven of their last 10 games to climb to third place in the Premier League table and will face Leeds in their next match on April 13. PA Media

Australia have defeated Cameroon 1-0 in Sydney in a friendly. Join Martin Pegan for reaction:

“Harry is Harry,” Thomas Tuchel said yesterday of his first-choice forward for England. Impossible to argue with that.

“He is a starter for us. The question is, if we are chasing a result, do we take Harry off? Someone who is also a good penalty-taker?”

And of the forwards who will start tonight against Uruguay, in the absence of Kane, Tuchel added: “It’s a chance to compete for a real chance to start.”

I like the fact that Tuchel is voicing the possibility that Kane may be taken off in a big knockout game. To mention you need penalty-taking ability in the player coming on is a clear indication he is learning from the mistakes of past managers. England have sometime persisted with an exhausted Kane because he was needed for a possible shootout, but using your bench at major tournaments is paramount.

Roy Hodgson back in management at 78. Who would have thunk it?

While we digest and reflect on that news, why not have a bash at this week’s sports quiz?

You can also mail me thoughts on Roy’s return, World Cup playoff woe/joy, or anything else football-related.

In the analysis of Thomas Tuchel’s split-squad approach for this international window, his naming of 35 players for the Wembley friendlies against Uruguay on Friday and Japan on Tuesday – including nine that he has not previously worked with – one detail has slipped under the radar.

It is because it is easy to forget that the England manager recently signed up to stay on for Euro 2028. There is a degree of longer-term planning about him wanting to get a first look, for example, at Ben White and Lewis Hall, Kobbie Mainoo and James Garner. Fikayo Tomori as well. The centre-half left Chelsea for Milan, initially on loan, in January 2021 – four days before Tuchel arrived at the London club for his brief but storied spell.

If you missed it somehow, here’s a roundup of last night’s other World Cup playoff action in Europe, including a 2-1 comeback win for Poland against Albania, Piotr Zielinski and Robert Lewandowski with the goals.

“It would be very, very Italian to scrape through these playoffs looking like utter garbage only to have a major impact this summer,” comments thebigfeller on the Italy v Northern Ireland match report.

“If they get past Bosnia, Group B looks extremely inviting: it’s no punishment at all for where the Azzurri find themselves. How far could they go if they do qualify? Quarter-finals I reckon. The road back to respectability is beckoning.”

“I thought Northern Ireland, who really have no quality playing resources at all, made a tremendous fist of it. They were far more competitive than I’d imagined and remain a really remarkable footballing nation with, lest we forget, fewer than two million people. That’s the smallest population, by far, of any World Cup quarter-finalist in history (1958, when they knocked Italy out in qualifying, then eliminated Argentina and Czechoslovakia at the finals); and of course, they reached the second phase in 1982 as well.

“They’re always all but impossibly up against it. Yet they fight their corner very manfully. Hard lines to them.”

Wales fans! Northern Ireland fans! Please email me.

The pattern is not unfamiliar. Marcelo Bielsa arrives. The force of his personality, the radicalism of his ideas, his charismatic eccentricity, elevates everyone. Results are good, performances intoxicating. The football is not merely successful but comes to be regarded almost as a moral good: playing the right way for a coach who projects a profound sense of integrity.

Gradually the picture changes. Fatigue sets in. Players weary of their manager’s obsessive nature. Pundits and fans begin to wonder if everything has to be quite so relentless all the time. Bielsa’s quirks come to be regarded less with affection than with aggravation. Levels drop, Bielsa leaves.

As someone who has an actual ticket for England v Uruguay at Wembley tonight, I’m looking forward to seeing how Marcelo Bielsa has them playing.

If only Jonathan Wilson had written about it …

A comment from JulesVerne75 on the Czech Republic v Ireland match report:

“As a Czech fan of course I am very pleased about going through after being 0-2 down and Ireland being awarded the softest ever penalty. But to be brutally honest, tonight was a game between two teams that no neutrals would miss at the World Cup. Currently both Ireland and our team are pretty poor … So happy for our boys – the current crop are not blessed with much talent but they did their best, and after facing some very brutal criticism from Czech fans during this qualifying cycle, I am just pleased that they got to experience the joy of a hard fought victory. But Denmark will be a step too far.”

And a reply from FCNordsjaelland:

“Dane here, I am not as confident about a Denmark win on Tuesday as you are. Denmark are the “better” team if both teams play their best, but the Danish side have been inconsistent in qualifying.

“They’ve not been great at home in particular, so the game being in Prague actually makes me a little less nervous.”

They are a World Cup fairytale, a footballing nation barely a decade old with fewer people than South Australia. A Balkan West Virginia, but with a fraction of the area, and a checkered past.

Minnows Kosovo are just one game away from their first appearance at a World Cup, and a place beckons in group D alongside Australia, Paraguay and co-hosts the United States.

All that stands in their way is a single, all-or-nothing playoff against Turkey at home in Pristina on Tuesday. It is a marvellous climax to a qualification campaign that has become a rallying cry for national optimism and pride.

The Brazil manager, Carlo Ancelotti, played down fans’ chants for Neymar, who was not selected for the squad, after their 2-1 defeat by France in a warm-up game in Boston on Thursday.

Neymar was left out after the 34-year-old missed a recent Santos match with muscle fatigue – a fixture Ancelotti had planned to watch as part of his assessment before naming the squad.

“Right now we have to talk about those who are here, who played, who gave everything, who showed character, who worked very hard. I am satisfied,” Ancelotti said.

“I think Raphinha played very well. He had some muscle discomfort at the end of the first half and we had to substitute him, but he had many opportunities and very good movement off the ball.

“And Vini (Vinícius Júnior) always tries; he always makes the difference. A striker cannot always score but the work done by both of them was good.”

Neymar, Brazil’s leading scorer with 79 goals, has not played for the national team since suffering a serious knee injury in October 2023 and has struggled to maintain a consistent run of matches since returning to Santos last year.

Ancelotti has repeatedly said the forward will be considered if he is fully fit. Despite the defeat and Neymar’s absence, the Italian said the performance reinforced his belief in the squad’s potential.

“I think today’s game makes it very clear to me that we can compete with the best teams in the world. I have no doubt about that,” Ancelotti said.

Brazil will next face Croatia on March 31 in Orlando ahead of the June 11 to July 19 World Cup in North America.

Thomas Tuchel has acknowledged that Ben White needs to clear the air with his teammates after returning to the England squad, but the head coach is confident the defender will not be booed by the Wembley crowd during tonight’s friendly against Uruguay.

White has not been part of the setup since exiting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar early for personal reasons and the decision to end his international exile has not gone down well with some people. The Arsenal player has never explained the reasons for his departure and subsequently making himself unavailable for selection for the rest of Gareth Southgate’s time in charge.

“Surprisingly it doesn’t hurt as much as thought it would,” writes Ross, a Republic of Ireland supporter, of the penalty shootout defeat in Prague.

“Ireland just didn’t deserve to go through, they were passive the whole second half, and let the extremely ordinary Czechs come on to them.”

Graham Potter may be in it for the long haul but the immediate outlook looks pretty bright too. This was his third game in charge of Sweden and the biggest compliment to pay is that they looked like themselves. A strong, diligent defensive performance nullified a lightweight Ukraine and it helped that, at the other end, they could call upon a centre-forward head and shoulders above anyone else on view.

Sammie Szmodics, of the Republic of Ireland, was knocked out after coming on as a substitute against the Czech Republic in Prague. He has posted on a well-known social media microblogging website to say he is fine and also thanked medical staff.

“Gutted the way it ended,” wrote Szmodics. “Fans and boys immense all evening !! Appreciate everyone’s messages. And thank you to the medical staff who acted so quickly to help me. On the mend. We go again.”

We certainly do, Sammie, we certainly do.

Which countries have qualified for the World Cup – and how did they do it?

Andy Martin takes a look:

Australia and Cameroon have just kicked off in a friendly encounter in Sydney.

Martin Pegan has the latest here:

Game seven of Gennaro Gattuso’s Italy tenure eventually delivered comfort. In number eight, he will look to end the painful wait of a nation by returning his country to the World Cup for the first time since 2014. Northern Ireland’s future, a bright one with this young squad, means looking towards Euro 2028. This was a campaign too soon.

A familiar tale of World Cup playoff agony awaited the Republic of Ireland in Prague, but this was no hard luck story. Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team twice had the Czech Republic where they wanted them, in normal time and in a penalty shootout, and twice they let them off the hook. Dreams of a first World Cup in 24 years evaporated as a consequence.

Two years to the day since penalty shootout heartbreak against Poland, more agony from 12 yards for Wales, this time to deny them a shot at reaching this summer’s World Cup. Bosnia and Herzegovina prevailed 4-2 on spot-kicks after a typically absorbing night in the Welsh capital, one that went the distance, more than 133 minutes passed before Brennan Johnson spooned over and Neco Williams saw his penalty saved by Nikola Vasilj.