Tuesday’s briefing: England beat Latvia as Wales prepare for North Macedonia

Reece James scored a wonderful free-kick as England beat Latvia 3-0 at Wembley to maintain Thomas Tuchel’s perfect start.

Ethan Nwaneri marked his England Under-21 debut with a goal as Lee Carsley’s team beat Portugal 4-2.

Tuesday night will see Craig Bellamy’s Wales looking to make it two wins from two in World Cup qualifying when they face North Macedonia.

Perfect return for James

Reece James marked his first start for England since 2022 with a superb free-kick goal to help Thomas Tuchel’s side to a 3-0 victory over Latvia.

The visitors made for stubborn opponents as England looked to respond to their manager’s call for more attacking initiative following Friday’s win against Albania, and it took a moment of magic from the Chelsea captain late in the first half to make the breakthrough.

Harry Kane netted his 71st England goal in the 68th minute before Eberechi Eze opened his international account to leave Tuchel with six points from his first two matches in charge.

“It was not an easy match,” said Tuchel. “We had to unlock it, but there were a lot of good things. Another clean sheet and we created a lot of chances from set-pieces.”

Nwaneri continues his rise

Ethan Nwaneri marked his full England Under-21s debut with a goal in their 4-2 friendly victory over Portugal at the Hawthorns.

The Arsenal youngster was particularly impressive and it only took him 10 minutes to open his account, expertly shifting the ball onto his left foot and bending it into the bottom corner to add to Hayden Hackney’s opener.

Omari Hutchinson and and Jaden Philogene also scored for Lee Carsley’s side, who warmed up in style for this summer’s European Under-21 Championships in Slovakia.

‘Scotland will be back’ says Hanley

Grant Hanley vowed that Scotland will prove their doubters wrong once more by bouncing back strongly from their Nations League relegation.

The centre-back understood the frustration of the Tartan Army as the Scots were booed off following a humiliating 3-0 home defeat by Greece on Sunday that resulted in a 3-1 aggregate loss in the play-off and demotion to League B.

Hanley was adamant that the Scots have shown often enough during Steve Clarke’s reign, however, that they should not be written off as they build towards the 2026 World Cup qualification campaign later this year.

“We’ve definitely had some major high moments in the last few years,” he said. “There’s also been some major lows. I’m sure the squad will prove again, as it has done, that we can bounce back.”

Wales out to create distraction

Craig Bellamy hopes the World Cup qualifier between North Macedonia and Wales provides some comfort for the bereaved after the devastating nightclub fire that claimed 59 lives in the Balkan state.

North Macedonia will be playing their first home fixture on Tuesday since the tragedy in Kocani – 101 kilometres south-east of the capital Skopje – left another 155 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled amid a bid to escape towards the building’s single exit.

The Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) has lined up various way to pay respect to those that lost their lives on March 16, including both teams wearing black armbands.

“I hope for just 90 minutes that we and North Macedonia are able, maybe just a tiny bit, to take one or two minds off what’s happened,” he said.

What’s on today?

Wales take on North Macedonia in Skopje looking to add the the 3-1 win over Kazakhstan with which they opened their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Northern Ireland, who are yet to begin their bid to reach the 2026 finals, travel to Stockholm to face Sweden in a friendly.