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History! That’s what we’re witnessing this evening, as England and Cote d’Ivoire play for the first time ever. This seems surprising, with Ivory Coast having qualified for three of the last four World Cups, won their first Afcon title in 1992, and generally being an established international force, but then England don’t play African teams very often: Ivory Coast will be only the eighth African nation to have played England in all of history (after Cameroon (four matches), Egypt (three), Nigeria (three), Tunisia (three), Morocco (two), South Africa (two) and Ghana (one)), the fifth to play them in England and the fourth to visit Wembley. England have never lost to an African side.
We don’t know much about what team Gareth Southgate is likely to pick, but we know it won’t be the same one that played against Switzerland on Saturday. “We’ve got a good squad, we want to give people opportunities and to see things across the week to see if people can play at the level,” he said in the build-up. “We want to keep all of the squad involved. I think that has been a strength for us. Players who come in perform well at the level and the team march on.” I would expect Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice to come into the side, while Tammy Abraham might replace Harry Kane, but that’s only informed guesswork, and I use the word “informed” entirely to make myself feel better.
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