England vs Switzerland news: Three Lions can eke out narrow Wembley win

Dave Tindall
25 March 2022

England's Gareth Southgate speaks with substitute Harry Kane on the touchline during the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match at Wembley Stadium, London

Gareth Southgate’s men have an excellent record in friendly internationals and should have enough to take victory against the Swiss on Saturday evening.

After breezing through their qualifying campaign with 26 points out of 30, England have safely booked their place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

So while others such as Wales, Portugal an Italy have to negotiate the play-offs - unsuccessfully in the Azzurri's case - England have used the international break to arrange back-to-back friendlies against Switzerland on Saturday and the Ivory Coast on Tuesday.

This is the first time Gareth Southgate has gathered his squad together since they stuck 10 (vidiprinter 'ten') past San Marino in late November.

When: Saturday, March 26, 17:30 GMT

Where: Wembley

How to watch: Sky Sports

Follow this game via our score centre

Who is the ref for England vs Switzerland

Andreas Ekberg is in charge at Wembley.

The Swedish referee averages over four bookings per game.

Season stats 2021/22: All games (11), yellows (47), reds (1), penalties (3)

Recent form

England ended their World Cup qualifying campaign by scoring 21 goals in the final four games.

That comprised a 10-0 away win in San Marino, 5-0 victories over Albania (home) and Andorra (away) and a 1-1 home draw with Hungary.

This will be their first friendly international since a pair of 1-0 home wins over Romania and Austria before last summer's Euros.

Switzerland showed their quality by edging out Italy for top spot in World Cup qualifying Group C.

The Swiss won five and drew three of their eight fixtures.

That included a 1-1 draw away to Italy and a 4-0 home victory over Bulgaria in their final two matches.

They haven't played since those two November games, while the last time a wider audience watched them was in last summer's Euros when the Swiss beat France in a shootout in the last 16 before going out on penalties to Spain in the quarter-finals.

England and Switzerland players in form

Harry Kane was absolutely on fire in England's final two qualifiers, banging in a hat-trick against Albania and then blasting four in the 10-0 rout of San Marino.

After struggling at the start of this season, he's found his feet in the Premier League too, netting four in his last four games and racking up the assists too.

Kane has 48 goals for his country going into the game which puts him third on the all-time list.

For Switzerland, Xherdan Shaqiri now plies his trade in the MLS and scored for his new team, Chicago Fire, last weekend.

The former Liverpool man has 26 international goals to his name.

The Swiss shared the goals around in qualifying, with Breel Embolo their leading marksman (3).

He scored twice in his latest start away to Lithuania and, after a hamstring problem, has returned to action with two goals in his last four matches for German outfit Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Last three meetings

Switzerland 0-0 England (June 9, 2019)

The Swiss haven't beaten England since 1981 and they again came up short, just, in the two sides' latest meeting, a clash to decide who would finish third in the inaugural Nations League.

In the end it was England after a dramatic shootout. The first 11 penalties were scored before Jordan Pickford saved from Josip Drmic.

England had struck the woodwork twice in regulation time through both Kane and Raheem Sterling and were by far the more positive side.

England 1-0 Switzerland (September 11, 2018)

England also came out on top in the last friendly against Switzerland, this one played at Leicester's King Power Stadium.

A 54th-minute volley from Manchester United's Marcus Rashford settled the outcome as he turned home Kyle Walker's cross.

Switzerland looked lively in the first half and Shaqiri hit the woodwork following a poor clearance from Jack Butland.

England 2-0 Switzerland (September 8, 2015)

A memorable night for Wayne Rooney as he became England's all-time record scorer.

Rooney went past Sir Bobby Charlton as he blasted an 84th-minute penalty to register his 49th goal for the Three Lions.

England had taken the lead in this Euro 2016 qualifier thanks to a fine finish from substitute Kane.

Past ten meetings

England wins: 7

Draws: 3

Switzerland wins: 0

England scored: 17

Liverpool scored: 6

Manager's thoughts

England boss Gareth Southgate on Italy's World Cup demise and the achievements of his own side in qualifying for Qatar: “It’s a big surprise, it’s clear sometimes teams have a cycle and whether that was a cycle or the after-affects of the (Euro 2020) final and everything else, that is where our players did so well.

“To get over the emotion of the summer and perform the way we did in the autumn was easily under-estimated.

“I suspect looking at the results and performances that Italy were in that position, but there were fine margins in three or four of their games and that is football.”

Predicted England vs Switzerland teams

Despite supposedly overflowing with quality right-backs, Southgate has a problem after losing Trent Alexander-Arnold and Reece James to injury.

Kyle Walker-Peters could step in.

Bukayo Saka has withdrawn from the squad after a positive Covid test, while Emile Smith Rowe is also expected to miss out after sitting out training on Friday.

Possible England line-up: Pickford, Walker-Peters, Stones, Maguire, Shaw, Rice, Bellingham, Grealish, Mount, Foden, Kane.

Switzerland are without main striker Haris Seferovic and midfielder Denis Zakaria.

Injury has also hit their goalkeeping department with Sommer and Philipp Kohn out. Borussia Dortmund's Gregor Kobel is set to deputise.

Possible Switzerland starting line-up: Kobel, Mbabu, Schar, Akanji, Rodriguez, Freuler, Xhaka, Shaqiri, Vargas, Zuber, Embolo.

England vs Switzerland prediction

With nothing really on the line, don't expect this to be a classic.

However, England boast an excellent record in friendlies and have emerged triumphant from the last eight, keeping seven clean sheets in the process.

Switzerland are a tough nut to crack - they're unbeaten in their last 10 games - but England should edge it and perhaps a 1-0 home win looks the most likely scoreline.