2026 Friendlies: England vs Uruguay Preview

England commence their preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in a friendly against Uruguay.

This fixture marks the first of two chances for England manager, Thomas Tuchel, and Uruguay manager, Marcelo Bielsa, to assess their squads before they name their provisional World Cup squad in May.

 

Team News

Jarrell Quansah and Eze Eberechi have withdrawn from England’s squad due to respective thigh and leg injuries, with Ben White and Harvey Barnes called up as their replacements.

Uruguay have no fresh injury concerns to report with Wolves’ Santiago Bueno and Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte named in the squad.

Ex Premier League stars, Facundo Pellistri, Darwin Nunez and Guillermo Varela also feature in Uruguay’s squad for this match.

 

When is Kick-Off?

England host Uruguay at Wembley Stadium, London, on Friday 27 March at 7:45pm GMT, live on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• England have avoided defeat in five of their eight friendlies against Uruguay (W3, D2, L3), but have won just one of their last friendly clashes (W1, D2, L2).
• Uruguay have avoided defeat in two of their three previous friendly visits to England at Wembley Stadium (W1, D1, L1), with their recent friendly trip in March 2006 having ended in a 2-1 loss at Anfield during renovations of Wembley.
• England have scored 19 goals in their last six matches without conceding (W6).
• Uruguay have lost one of their last seven matches in all competitions (W4, D2, L1).

 

Prediction

With Tuchel having named a very large squad, I am honestly not sure on what to expect here because this international window feels like it will be one of experimentation but I would hope that he fields his strongest 11 in this trickier friendly than the Japan clash.

Uruguay meanwhile can’t be underestimated given their international pedigree and I do expect them to provide a tough test for England’s resilient defence, assuming Tuchel decides to put out his first-choice line-up here and save the heavy experimentation for Japan.

I however do think that England will edge this if the likes of Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane start but this isn’t going to be easy.

Prediction: England 2-1 Uruguay

Result: England 1-1 Uruguay