Key events
If England can make it four wins from four – and it would be one hell of a shock if they didn’t – Ireland’s campaign begins this evening in a four-team group. They really need a win over Hungary to set the ball rolling.
Heimir Hallgrimsson, the 58-year-old Icelander took charge in July last year and has since been gearing up for the qualifying campaign.
Hallgrimsson’s record to date is modest – he has won four competitive games and lost four, albeit two of them to England in the Nations League – in addition to two friendly draws, but he is confident the squad he inherited from Stephen Kenny has developed and continues to do so.
Your World Cup qualifying action today:
7.45 pm BST unless stated
-
Group F: Armenia v Portugal (1700BST), Republic of Ireland v Hungary
-
Group H: Austria v Cyprus. San Marino v Bosnia and Herzegovina.
-
Group K: England v Andorra, Latvia v Serbia (1400BST).
Feels like much of the England camp has involved discussing the recently closed transfer window. Dan Burn on Alexander Isak was the order of the day on Friday.
About last night, Denmark 0-0 Scotland was a tough watch but a decent result for Steve Clarke. Scotland don’t find goals easy to come by – their leading scorers are still Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish on 30 each.
Clarke sprang a surprise with the deployment of two strikers, Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes, from the outset. “If I am not brave, I might as well not be in the job,” said the manager. Equally striking was the sight of John McGinn, who has typically operated on the left or centre of midfield for his country, on the right. Rasmus Højlund, fresh from his loan move from Manchester United to Napoli, was among Denmark’s replacements.
Much-needed win for Italy.
Italy opened Gennaro Gattuso’s reign as manager with a 5-0 home win over Estonia in World Cup qualifying, wasting chances for almost an hour before exploding in the final stages of the second half to turn dominance into a rout.
Remember the 39th game? Well, it could be coming to a football league near you, should Uefa allow a regular-season Liga game to be played in Miami, and a Serie A match to be played in Perth – that’s Western Australia not Caledonia.
There are no illusions that, even if permission is granted only for these individual cases, this genie can be squeezed back into the bottle. Nobody could consider that realistic having heard the Serie A president, Ezio Simonelli, say last month that he would have liked to play the league’s entire first round on foreign soil.
Below the line comments are openso why not let us know what your plans are for today?
Ahead of Arsenal v London City, Suzanne Wrackour lead women’s football writer, will join us for a Q&A on all matters WSL and beyond.
Get in touch at: Matchday.live@theguardian.com
Last night’s action for starters? Big, statement win for Chelsea.
Preamble
Good morning, Guardian Football. It’s international weekend, but that doesn’t stop our live coverage of your football weekend. The World Cup is fewer than 300 days away – 278 to be precise – and there’s actually a lot to be decided. The key fixture here is England v Andorra at Villa Park, what with Coldplay at Wembley. They never meant to cause trouble, they never meant to cause harm and instead Thomas Tuchel’s barmy army will play in Birmingham.
Join us we build up to that, the WSL, where it’s a London derby between Arsenal and big-spending London City. Just join us.
