Thomas Tuchel’s decision to call up Reece James may have raised a few eyebrows, but certainly not as many as the stupendous free kick that the Chelsea captain produced in Monday night’s 3-0 win against Latvia.
James, handed his first England start since September 2022, stepped up in the 38th minute, and delivered an absolutely picture-perfect striker into the top corner to open the scoring in this 2026 World Cup qualifying matchup.
There were no exuberant celebrations, in part due to his personality, but in part undoubtedly also due to all the injury-struggles of the preceding two and a half years. This was only the third national team appearance for James, first start in that span, which has also seen him miss more games for Chelsea than be available for. Hopefully, all that is now truly behind him.
England would add two more goals in the second half, through Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze to give Tuchel two wins in his first two games in charge. Levi Colwill was an unused substitute in both games.
The day before, on Sunday, Marc Cucurella’s Spain progressed to the UEFA Nations League semifinals after beating the Netherlands, 5-4 in a penalty shootout, after the two teams had battled to a 5-5 draw on aggregate after two legs. Cucurella played the full 120 but did not take a penalty.
Former Chelsea prospect Ian Maatsen was handed his debut for the Dutch in the second leg, and scored their second equalizer on the night before the match headed into extra-time. Both teams scored in the extra period, too, then contested six rounds of penalties in what was a rather dramatic 210 minutes and change between the two footballing nations.
Spain will take on France in the semifinals after France’s own penalty-shootout win (and second leg comeback) against Croatia.
The other semifinal will be between Germany and Portugal, after the former took care of Italy (though also not without some late drama) and the latter hammered Denmark in the second leg, 5-2, to overcome a shock 1-0 first leg defeat. Neither João Félix nor Geovany Quenda featured in the second leg (nor did Filip Jörgensen), while Pedro Neto and Renato Veiga were not even named in the matchday squad.
