England will hope to get their Euro 2020 qualification campaign back on track when they take on Bulgaria in Sofia.
Manager Gareth Southgate has handed Tyrone Mings his international debut, while Ross Barkley is also selected to start after his poor showing in the defeat in Prague.
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England’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford also toed the party line claiming that the defeat in Prague was a “blessing in disguise”
Those sentiments were echoed by manager Gareth Southgate who says the team are disappointed and may need a change of tact:
“It’s an unusual feeling for this group of players because they haven’t had a really disappointing, unexpected disappointing result,” he told BBC 5 Live.
“We have had disappointing results in some big matches against high-calibre opposition, but against the slightly lower ranked teams, that’s our first experience of that.
“I had a couple as a player when we travelled away and difficult games remind ourselves about playing away from home at any level, it is tough.”
“I think when you’re looking at your team you’re always assessing, especially given the availability of players for each get together. What’s the best way forward, what are the best tactics for this match, what might be the best tactics moving forward?” he added.
“I think we should always be reflecting upon what is the best system to get our best players on the pitch and in the areas of the pitch were they can be most effective. I think that’s been a strong point of what we have done over the last three years.
“Although we attempted something on Friday, because of the way we played, we would say it didn’t work, that doesn’t necessarily say it was the wrong decision, we just didn’t execute it.”
Harry Kane is determined to look for the positives in the defeat to the Czech Republic and sees it as a wake up call for England to improve and set their sights high again.
“When you lose you reflect on everything, your own performance and the team’s,” he said.
“It definitely opens up your eyes a little bit more.
“Whenever you are winning you kind of just move on to the next game and maybe you don’t see the whole picture and what we can improve on.
“When you lose you start looking back at other games, or maybe that’s been happening for a few games now.
“It’s important to turn that into a positive and make sure we learn from that and take that into the Bulgaria match.”
England will take heart from the last time the two sides met. In September England hosted Bulgaria and dispatched them 4-0.
Harry Kane scored a hat-trick that night and he’ll be eager to repeat that performance when he leads out the three lions in just under 45 minutes time.
Victory in Sofia isn’t going to be enough for England tonight. After reaching the semi-finals of two international tournaments, the World Cup and the Nations League, they need to show that they are still a top level team:
Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings makes his debut for England tonight, ten years to the day that David Beckham made his last appearance for England.
We’re predicting an England victory tonight but then again we thought they’d win in Prague and we all know how that turned out:
Here’s the Bulgaria side that England will line up against:
Bulgaria XI: Illiev, Zanev, Hadzhiev, Terziev, Pashov, Wanderson, Kostadinov, Despodov, Sarmov, Popov, Isa
England are looking to bounce back from their shocking defeat to the Czech Republic on Friday where the home side came from behind to defeat the three lions 2-1.
It was one of the poorest displays from an England side under Gareth Southgate but that will be forgotten with a commanding display in Sofia tonight.
If England win and Kosovo fail to beat Montenegro then England will qualify for the 2020 European Championship this evening.
But more than that an efficient and dominating performance is needed to put Southgate’s men back in the limelight.
Team news
Gareth Southgate makes five changes from the side that lost to the Czech Republic in Prague on Friday night.
Michael Keane and Danny Rose are ousted from the defence in favour of debutante Tyrone Mings and Ben Chilwell.
Declan Rice, Mason Mount and Jadon Sancho all drop to the bench with Harry Winks, Ross Barkley and Marcus Rashford joining the starting XI.
Team news
Tyrone Mings gets his first start, on debut, for the three lions!
Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of Bulgaria vs England.
Match preview:
When is it?
Kick-off is at 7:45 PM BST on Monday 14th October
How can I watch it?
The match will be broadcast on ITV1 from 7pm.
You can also live stream the match via ITV HUB Live on a range of devices, including laptops, smartphones and tablets.
Prediction
Wholesale changes are something that Southgate has rarely advocated, but they appear necessary given England’s defensive frailties which were once again exposed against Czech Republic. And it is likely that those changes will determine the extent to which England are successful in Sofia.
A 4-0 thrashing of the same opposition at Wembley last month should serve as good omens for Southgate’s side, but destroying a team at home holds little importance as England discovered in their 2-1 defeat on Friday, a side that they had thrashed 5-0 on home soil.
However, Bulgaria sit bottom of group A and this is close to the perfect fixture that Southgate would have chosen to get a low-confidence England back on their feet.
Whichever front three Southgate chooses will cause problems for the Bulgaria defence, and should England show improvement defensively they will leave Sofia three points clear at the top of the group once again.
