World Cup qualifiers 2026 .. Unconvincing imagination touches with the English national team

After starting his mission as the third foreign coach in the history of the English national team positively by beating Albania 2-0, the German Tufuel aspires to “the best” in the face of Latvia on Monday at “Wembley” stadium in the second round of Group eleventh competitions of the European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
Tochel handed over his technical duties in January and became the third foreign coach for the “Three Lions” team after the Italian Fabio Capello and the late Swedish Sven-Gouran Ericsson, after he replaced the Southgate, who abandoned his duties after losing the final of Europe against Spain 1-2 last summer, for the second time in succession also after the defeat against Italy on penalties in the summer version of 2021.
The beginning was not much convincing, as the British performed a largely modest performance, but they succeeded in obtaining the three points thanks to the newcomer Miles Lewis-Skili and Commander Harry Caen, with hope that the performance will be better in the second round meeting on Monday against Latvia, the winner of the opening of its host Andorra 1-0.
“We can be better, we have to do a better job. We faced a competitor (Albania) that is difficult to exhaust it since he defended a solid group in the depth. I think we were somewhat slow in the second half.”
“In general, we did not run enough without a ball to get behind them. I felt that there was weight to move. I felt that we were a little exhausting.”
The Tawakh team cannot be judged as it was the first match of the “Three Lions” team led by the German.

Step -by -step

But it seemed reassured by saying we will improve, we will reach a better rhythm. I will better understand the players and why we suffer to get more incursions in the last third of the field, “in dealing with the situation” step by step. We will study things. We will conduct video sessions and make sure to find solutions. “
The positive thing in the Friday match against Albania is that the Tochel team completed 437 passes in the first half of the meeting, which indicates the German touch and the “Three Lions” abandoned their traditional style of long passes in most cases.
The English national team’s imagination urged to simulate the strength of the best Premier League teams and their offensive tendency instead of leaving the fear of failure to affect them, as happened sometimes during the eight years of Southgate.
But the German coach found that persuading England to change her style required more than just an enthusiastic speech, saying, “We wanted to increase the rhythm and risk in the second half. But we were not disciplined enough. We tried to do a lot individually, which slowed the rhythm of our play.”
“We want to watch an open match. I understand that it is not the most exciting match (against Albania), but we still need to do what is required.”
Tawakl pointed to the weak influence of the wings Marcus Rashford, who is returning to the team for the first time since he sat on the bench in the friendly meeting against Belgium (2-2) on March 26, 2024, and Phil Voden, considering this as evidence of the weak performance of his team.
“The wings that participated are not the same as the same effect on their teams. They did not have the effect that we expected from them. We lacked running without a ball. There were many passes and weaknesses in keeping them. We were not defeated enough to penetrate into the goal.”
While looking forward to the second match against Latvia, Tawakh hopes that Louis-Skili’s historic moment will be a source of inspiration for his teammates, after Friday at the age of 18 and 176 days, the youngest player ever scored in his first match with the team, beating Rashford, who was 18 years and 209 days when he scored against Australia in May 2016.
“He is an amazing player,” Tawakh said in this regard.
In the seventh group, which the winner of the European League quarter -finals joins between Spain and the Netherlands, Poland appears to be an easy task against its guest Malta.
Poland started its pursuit of the third qualification in a row to the finals by beating her guest Lithuania with a goal scored by Robert Lewandowski at the end of the meeting, while Finland defeated its host Malta 1-0 despite completing the last meeting with ten players, which makes it the two in front of a difficult task in the hospitality of Lithuania.
In the eighth, and after it fell to its land in front of the Bosnia 0-1, Romania, seeking to return to the finals for the first time since 1998, is a guest at the humble San Marino, who lost the opening of 0-2 Cyprus.
Bosnia appears to be an affordable mission and is able to achieve its second victory when it hosts Cyprus.
He qualifies for the expanded finals (48 elected instead of 32) scheduled in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the 12th group champions, while the second -place holders are playing an attachment of four tracks in which four qualified teams from the European Nations League participate.