Key events
7 min Ukraine have barely had a kick. England’s shape is interesting, with Chilwell playing very high on the left and Walker sometimes tucking in as a third centre-back. The days of neat, symmetrical formations are long gone.
6 min “Not paid attention to England since the Euros,” says Graham Randall. “The whole Qatar thing didn’t sit right. Time to get back on the bandwagon I think.”
They’re in serious danger of winning Euro 2024. They were deceptively close to winning the World Cup as well.
4 min Bellingham walks past Stepanenko with disdain and slides a dangerous pass towards Saka in the area. He takes the ball in his stride but then runs out of room.
3 min Lots of early possession for England, albeit in harmless areas. Maguire is now playing to the left of Guehi, so I’m going to shut up about tactics.
1 min Harry Maguire is playing as the right-sided centre-back, with Guehi on the left. Maguire usually starts on the left for England, though not necessasrily for Manchester United anymore.
1 min Peep peep! Jordan Henderson gets the game under way, with England kicking from left to right as we watch.
Here come the players. It’s pretty warm, around 26 degrees, and the Ukraine fans are making a decent noise. This should be a good game.
A guide to Wroclaw
“It’s from a few years back,” writes James, “but my Guardian guide to Wrocław gives a bit of background to the place.”
“If I remember my MBMs correctly, isn’t Simon McMahon a Dundee fan?” says James Humphries. “Very surprising to hear such confidence, particularly considering <gestures broadly at the last 30 years of Scottish football in general, and Dundee in particular>. I’m still waiting to find out how we eff it up from 15 points out of 15, personally.
“Anyhow! Ukraine got a hope today, do we think, or is it another page in the long, sad history of England getting jammy groups?”
The Dundee part is correct, but you missed one small detail. As for today, it’s not beyond the realms but I can’t see it. I don’t think this is a particularly jammy group; England are just very good, and tournaments are getting bigger so it’s very hard not to qualify. I miss the days of an eight-team Euros. Look how tight some of these groups were, and the quality of the teams that didn’t make it.
Nick Ames on the bond between Ukraine and England
“Can you please assure Simon McMahon that there are very many (me included) from England wishing Scotland all the best,” writes Shaun Tooze. “Meeting in the final would be a bit special wouldn’t it*. But, you know, the French, Germans, Portuguese, Italians, Dutch…
“*understatement of the history of the universe.”
‘At Bayern you have to win every game… I’m enjoying those different emotions’
David Hytner’s preview
“Afternoon Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “When I read the line ‘They qualify without breaking sweat these days, and barring an astonishing collapse they’ll be in Germany next summer’ in your preamble, I assumed you were talking about Scotland. I have my lederhosen packed already and, rather than just being glad to qualify, am seriously hopeful that we could do some actual damage in the tournament itself. God knows we’ve waited long enough.”
It’s great isn’t it. The rebirth of Billy Gilmour makes me especially happy, never mind the emergence of Gerd McTominay.
James Maddison starts on the left of England’s attack
The state of play in Group C
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England P4 Pts 12
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Ukraine P3 Pts 6
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Italy P2 Pts 3
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North Macedonia P3 Pts 3
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Malta P4 Pts 0
The other game today is North Macedonia v Italy, which kicks off at 7.45pm BST.
Team news: Guehi starts
No big surprises in the England team. Marc Guehi replaces the injured John Stones at centre-back, Jordan Henderson starts in midfield and James Maddison is preferred to Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden.
Ukraine (4-2-1-3) Bushchan; Konoplia, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Mykolenko; Stepanenko, Zinchenko; Sudakov; Tsygankov, Yaremchuk, Mudryk.
Substitutes: Trubin, Lunin, Mykhaylichenko, Kryvtsov, Sydorchuk, Yarmolenko, Dovbyk, Buyalskiy, Vanat, Popov, Nazaryna, Karavaev.
England (4-1-2-3) Pickford; Walker, Guehi, Maguire, Chilwell; Rice; Henderson, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Maddison.
Substitutes: Johnstone, Ramsdale, Trippier, Colwill, Tomori, Phillips, Dunk, Eze, Rashford, Foden, Gallagher, Wilson.
Referee Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Euro 2024 qualifier between Ukraine and England. If you’re looking for jeopardy, you’ve come to the wrong place. Tonight’s match is being played in Poland, which used to be where England qualified for major tournaments by the skin of their teeth: Peter Shilton touching a last-minute heatseeker onto the crossbar in 1989, Gary Lineker scoring a spectacular late equaliser two years later.
They qualify without breaking sweat these days, and barring an astonishing collapse they’ll be in Germany next summer. The most interesting thing about these games is the evolution of the team rather than the need for three points. Some players, like James Maddison, Marcus Rashford and Trent Alexander-Arnold when he’s fit, are trying to play their way into Gareth Southgate’s best XI for next summer; others, like Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson, are trying to stay in it.
It’s a bigger game for Ukraine, who are scrapping with Italy and North Macedonia for the other automatic qualification place. A result tonight would set them up for an even more important match on Tuesday: Italy away.
Kick off 5pm BST/6pm Wroclaw/7pm Kyiv