Norway v England: Women's World Cup quarter-final – live!

David Beckham in the house: The former England international is here with his little girl, Harper, to cheer on England’s Lionesses tonight.

Phil Neville speaks: “I’m lucky in that I’ve got two of the best left-backs in the world,” he says to the BBC, upon being asked why Demi Stokes has come in tonight. “We just thought today with Demi’s freshness and her ability to play tight alongside Millie Bright, that it would work to our advantage.”

Obligatory Ada Hegerberg mention: If Norway are to progress tonight, they will have to do so without the best player in the world, Ada Hegerberg. The Ballon D’Or winner has stood herself down from the Norway team since after the 2017 Euros on the back of assorted grievances she has with her country’s Football Association. They’ve coped admirably without her so far.

Norway: Hjelmseth, Moe Wold, Thorisdottir, Mjelde, Boe Risa, Herlovsen, Graham-Hansen, Engen, Reiten, Minde, Saevik.

England: Bardsley, Bronze, Houghton, Bright, Stokes, Walsh, Parris, Scott, Kirby, Duggan, White.

The teams are in and England fans will be pleased to learn that both Steph Houghton and Millie Bright start, despite Phil Neville saying they were both serious doubts ahead of tonight’s game. Neville makes one change from the team that started against Cameroon, with Demi Stokes coming in for Alex Greenwood.

Tonight’s ticketing arrangements

Travelling fans who bought their tickets for tonight’s match from the FA were instructed to pick them up from a pub, no less. “All tickets must be collected by the lead booker from Le Trappist bar in Le Havre on matchday between 1pm-7pm,” read an FA statement.

Boasting a 4.5 star review on Trip Advisor, Le Trappist appears to bve renowned for its “great atmosphere, fantastic beer selection and good prices”. It also boasts a nice seafood menu, even if one French customer, who appears to be very much in the minority, claimed that “maintenant c’est devenu trop commercial, froid, horrible, serveurs malaimables (now it is too commercial, cold, horrible and has unfriendly waiting staff”. Ouch.

Tonight’s match officials

Referee: Lucila Venegas (Mexico)
Assistant Referee 1: Mayte Chavez (Mexico)
Assistant Referee 2: Enedina Caudillo (Mexico)
Fourth Official: Katalin Kulcsar (Hungary)

VAR: Massimiliano Irrati (Italy)
AVAR 1: Paolo Valeri (Italy)
AVAR 2: Manuela Nicolosi (France)

Lucila Venegas is the best referee in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) regions and has won awards confirming as much in the past two years. A 37-year-old with a degree in Physical Culture and Sports from the University of Guadalajara, Ms Venegas obtained her Fifa badge 10 years ago. This is her second Women’s World Cup and she also officiated at the Rio Olympics.

Some pre-match listening

Max Rushden asked the difficult questions as myself, Chris Paouros and Philippe Auclair previewed this match, talked about the latest crisis at Newcastle and took Derby fans to task over their hypocrisy, among other subjects, on the latest thrilling episode of our Football Weekly podcast. You can listen to it here and if you don’t already subscribe, sign up for free in all the usual pod places.

Tonight’s weather

The temperature in Le Havre peaked at 27 degrees celsius today and is expected to be around 25 degrees at kick-off tonight with a cool breeze, dropping to 22 at around 11pm. Phil Neville has said he has no concerns about his players struggling in the heat.

“I think it’s an English obsession, the weather,” he said. “We actually like it being hot. We have provisions in place and we spent virtually two weeks in a sauna without air conditioning in St George’s Park before coming to France. We know it will be hot, but the ball won’t get tired if we pass it well.” Two weeks in a sauna is a very long time. I can barely last 20 minutes.

England’s pre-match press conference

Phil Neville and goalkeeper Karen Bardsley fronted up to face the press and field their interrogatory projectiles yesterday and you can hear what they had to say by watching the accompanying video.

Early team news

Despite television footage of her gadding about freely on the beach that suggests otherwise, Phil Neville says central defender Steph Houghton is a major doubt for tonight’s game following the nasty foul on her ankle committed by Cameroon’s Alexandra Takounda towards the end of their last game. Houghton’s fellow centre-back Millie Bright has been laid low by a virus that has affected several members of the England camp to the varying degrees and is also a concern after being confined to barracks all day yesterday.

Abbie McManus and Leah Williamson are on standby, but Neville will give both Houghton and Bright every chance of recovering from their respective maladies before making his final decision. Norway manager Martin Sjogren has a fully fit squad to choose from, his players having come through their round of 16 epic against Australia unscathed.

Le Havre’s Stade de Océane ids the venue for the first of the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals, which pits England against Norway. A place in the semi-finals against the USA or hosts France is up for grabs and while England go into the match as favourites, their preparations for this game have not gone entirely swimmingly since their win in a fractious match against Cameroon. Kick-off in Normandy is at 8pm (BST), but stay tuned for team news and build-up in the meantime.