England’s last game before the end of the 2025-26 club season saw them lose 1-0 at home to Japan in a friendly on Tuesday. Thomas Tuchel made 10 changes to the side that started their 1-1 draw with Uruguay last Friday, slotting in most of his preferred players that are expected to go to the World Cup – minus the unfit Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham – but they produced a disjointed performances that raised further questions over their chances of glory this summer.
Midway through the first half, Japan took the lead. Cole Palmer cheaply lost possession to Kaoru Mitoma, who started the process of a swift counter-attack, which eventually saw the Brighton winger tap in from a low Keito Nakamura cross down England’s right flank.
England went close to an equaliser soon after when Jordan Pickford picked out Anthony Gordon running in behind with a stunning long ball over the visitors’ backline, with the ball eventually finding Elliot Anderson on the edge of the box, but his curling effort was deflected onto the crossbar. Japan themselves hit the woodwork shortly before the break when Ayase Ueda beat the offside trap and saw his strike blocked by Ezri Konsa onto the upright.
With under 15 minutes to go, Marcus Rashford stung the palms of goalkeeper Zion Suzuki with a fierce half-volley, while Jarrod Bowen fired the rebound wide on the swivel as England finally showed some appetite to try and find a leveller again.
Tuchel introduced Dan Burn and Harry Maguire from the bench to up the hosts’ set-piece threat, and the Manchester United centre-back had a header cleared off the line within seconds of coming on, but that was as close as the Three Lions came to scoring and they were booed off after four minutes of added time.
GOAL rates England’s players from Wembley Stadium…
