England v Czechia: Nations League football – live

Some early team news. It’s piping hot off the press, courtesy of our man at Wembley, Jacob Steinberg …

double quotation markTrent Alexander-Arnold is expected to get another chance at right-back tonight. He impressed in Prague last week. Eberechi Eze is also poised to make his first start of this camp.

It’s going to be a big evening for our Admin and Housekeeping department, as a couple of tables will need significantly updating by the end of it. First up there’s Group A3 of the Nations League, which currently stands like this …

Spain P3 GD+6 Pts 9 2. England P3 GD+8 Pts 6 3. Croatia P3 GD-9 Pts 3 4. Czechia P3 GD-5 Pts 0

… and there’ll also be the small matter of England men’s all-time appearance chart, the top of which is forecast to be hit by a crossfire Harry Kane. It’s a gas, gas, gas!

125: Peter Shilton 124: 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 91: Jordan Henderson, Jordan Pickford 90: Bryan Robson

Czechia have played 14 matches in the last 12 months. They’ve only won four of them: against San Marino, Gibraltar, Kosovo and Guatemala. They’ve lost their last four straight: against Mexico, Croatia, Spain and … England, who by contrast are coming off the back of a third-placed finish at the World Cup, a decent showing against the new world champions, and an historic win in Croatia. We could go on – England are fourth in the Fifa rankings, the Czechs 50th – but there’s nothing to be gained in belabouring the point … and in any case football doesn’t always work like that, which is why we keep turning up and tuning in. Will England consolidate their position in Group A3 with a view to making next spring’s quarter-finals, or can the Czechs spring a surprise and keep their (admittedly faint) hopes alive? We find out from 7.45pm BST.