{"id":98561,"date":"2025-10-14T22:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98561"},"modified":"2025-10-14T22:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:05:00","slug":"england-thrash-latvia-to-reach-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98561","title":{"rendered":"England thrash Latvia to reach World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 16 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

England confirmed their qualification for next summer\u2019s World Cup by overwhelming Latvia in Riga.<\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side needed victory to assure their place in the showpiece, the outcome never in doubt as England outclassed a Latvian side ranked 137th in the world.<\/p>\n

Amid the celebrations, it was at times an uncomfortable night for Tuchel, who felt anger and frustration from England\u2019s travelling fans as they chanted sarcastically and loudly in response to the head coach\u2019s criticism of \u201csilent\u201d supporters after the friendly against Wales at Wembley.<\/p>\n

The bigger picture, however, reveals that England qualified with two games to spare after a flawless first campaign for Tuchel, who succeeded Sir Gareth Southgate in January.<\/p>\n

Anthony Gordon put England ahead after 26 minutes with a low, curling finish, and captain Harry Kane scored twice more before the interval, first with a strike from the edge of the area then from the spot after his shirt was pulled.<\/p>\n

England added a fourth just before the hour when Latvia\u2019s Andrejs Ciganiks bundled Djed Spence\u2019s cross into his own net.<\/p>\n

Substitute Eberechi Eze further emphasised England\u2019s dominance with a dribble and low finish to make it 5-0 after 86 minutes.<\/p>\n

England analysis: World Cup place sealed in convincing fashion<\/h2>\n

Tuchel\u2019s England tenure started off as something of a slow burner, but sparked into life with the outstanding 5-0 win in Serbia.<\/p>\n

England found a momentum and fluency in Belgrade that had previously eluded them under Tuchel. They now look a serious threat, led by their remarkable captain Kane, who took his tally to 76 goals in 110 appearances with his double in Riga.<\/p>\n

And to underscore their growing menace, England have now scored 13 goals without reply in their past three games.<\/p>\n

Tuchel may not have been presented with the most testing qualifying group when taking over from Southgate after Lee Carsley\u2019s interim period in charge, but six wins from six games without a goal conceded is still an impressive return.<\/p>\n

England keeper Jordan Pickford made two routine saves in the second half, extending his sequence of international clean sheets to nine in a row.<\/p>\n

It also means Tuchel can use qualifiers that are now effectively dead rubbers against Serbia at Wembley and away to Albania to continue shaping his squad in readiness for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Tuchel has completed phase one of the task he was given by reaching the World Cup \u2013 now he must find a way to win it.<\/p>\n

Tuchel analysis: England fans take head coach to task<\/h2>\n

England\u2019s supporters inside Riga\u2019s Daugava Stadium wasted no time in making their feelings clear about Tuchel\u2019s criticism of the Wembley crowd following the 3-0 friendly win against Wales on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The game was only seconds old when loud chants of \u201cThomas Tuchel we\u2019ll sing when we want\u201d as he was then subjected to a torrent of sarcasm from his own fans.<\/p>\n

It was followed by \u201cThomas Tuchel are we loud enough for tou?\u201d then \u201cTuchel Tuchel give us a song\u201d which at least brought a raised hand of acknowledgement from the coach.<\/p>\n

It carried on, with a period of silence in the stadium sparking the response \u201cAre you Wembley in disguise?\u201d from England\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n

Some of the chanting was light-hearted, but the message was clear. England\u2019s travelling support on this rain-soaked night in Riga did not appreciate being taken to task by their own head coach and made their feelings obvious at great volume.<\/p>\n

The night ended on good terms as Tuchel applauded the drenched away section, but he was left in no doubt that his words had not been well received.<\/p>\n

It is hardly a major fracture between the coach and England\u2019s fans, but it provided an intriguing sub-plot to the formality unfolding on the pitch and may be a lesson learned by Tuchel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"EnglandEngland confirmed their qualification for next summer’s World Cup by overwhelming Latvia in Riga.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4306,137,10498,10,9,7866],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england","category-football","category-latvia","category-politics","category-popular","category-world-cup-2026"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}