Follow Daily Mail Sport’s live coverage as England face Ghana on Tuesday night in Boston with Thomas Tuchel targeting a place in the knockout stages.
‘Great atmosphere among the fans’
Oliver Holt at the Boston Stadium:
Just been out on the concourse. There’s a great atmosphere among the fans. I worried about the lack of segregation when the tournament began but I guess I should learn to be more generous towards my fellow man. One of the best parts of this World Cup so far has been the brotherhood between the rival supporters.
‘I would have picked Rashford’
Ian Ladyman at the Boston Stadium:
To replace John Stones with Marc Guehi makes perfect sense. I am more surprised that Thomas Tuchel has decided to take Nico O’Reilly out of his team. I didn’t see much wrong in what the England left-back did against Croatia and I’ve equally never been convinced by Djed Spence.Maybe Tuchel thinks Spence’s pace on the overlap can open up some space for Anthong Gordon who was poor last week and – in my opinion – lucky to get another opportunity here today. I would have picked Marcus Rashford…
Ready to roar in Boston
Maybe these are the three lads my colleague Jack Gaughan was talking about earlier?
Although there are a few England fans in Lion masks at this game…
The Three Lions faithful have certainly turned up for this match; that’s for sure. Plenty of face paint, costumes, flags. Oh yeah, and a lot, and I mean a lot, of chants.
The England supporters are in fine voice.
Can Kane break Lineker’s record?
Harry Kane is chasing history today.
By bagging a brace in that first game against Croatia, the England captain now has 10 goals in World Cups for the Three Lions.
Kane is tied with Gary Lineker for the most goals for England at a World Cup finals, and he will be hungry to make sure he is out on his own after today.
Can he break the record?
Tuchel: ‘Guehi and Spence deserve to play’
Thomas Tuchel, England boss, speaking to BBC One:
They (Guehi and Spence) deserve to play. They have a bit more speed and a different profile. Mark is more agile than John (Stones) and a little bit more convenient to play on the left side for him. Djed (Spence) is a bit more defensive and faster to control the counter-attacks.They (Ghana) are happy to give up possession. They want us to fall asleep and feel safe and they will counter us. They’re not shy to use long balls. We need a lot of duels in the full-back position, and we need to be careful and aggressive to stop counter-attacks.
Patience and discipline is important. The grass is long so we’re happy that it’s raining. We will have the majority of the ball and its important we have patience and intensity. We need to protect ourselves from not being open.
Winning is the most important but a draw is not the end of the world. We want to put out a good performance and continue where we left off. I’m sure Ghana dreams and thinks about winning. We have a tough group and it’s a tough game against strong opponents. We will go for the win.
‘Plenty of England fans missing school’
Nick Pisa in Boston:
As with the Dallas game, the Daily Mail saw several children with English accents accompanied by their dads bounding towards the stadium; none of them were willing to speak and reveal if they were off school or on an authorised break.Meanwhile in Boston itself, the Dublin, a pub which had opened its arms to the Tartan Army for two weeks, incredibly closed its doors on Tuesday for staff to have a ‘well-deserved break’, leaving Three Lions fans to look elsewhere for a venue.
In a post on social media management said: ‘We’ve decided to give our staff a day off and our closing today. They’ve worked incredibly hard over the last two weeks and deserve it.’
They added somewhat tongue-in-cheek: ‘There’s nothing happening in Boston today so we will be back tomorrow,’ signing off with a handshake emoji and Scottish and Irish flags with the caption ‘No Scotland. No party’. One punter replied: ‘Quite possibly the biggest bird ever from a Boston pub to the English.’
Can Kane catch the big boys?
Over to you, Harry Kane.
We have seen Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Cristiano Ronaldo all bag a brace, and now it’s time to see whether Harry Kane can follow suit.
I think he will need to if he wants to stay in the hunt for the World Cup Golden Boot.
This could well be the most hotly-contested Golden Boot race in World Cup history, with Messi already on five goals after two games, and Mbappe on four. Crazy numbers at this stage of the tournament.
Kane did manage to bag a brace last week against Croatia, and you feel he needs to repeat that feat if he is to stay in touch with M&M.
Can he bag another couple of goals?
STAT PACK: England vs Ghana
You know what time it is.
No, it’s not Chico time (what a song), but rather stat pack time, as our friends at Squawka supply the goods once again.
Based on the stats from teh first game, there is only one way this match is going. Just look at the difference in chance creation.
But as we all well know, you’re only as good as you are on the day. England will have to turn up again if they want another win.
If they play like they did against Croatia, they’ll get it.
Super cool Spence
If I had to vote for who is the best dressed in this World Cup squad, Djed Spence would be right up there.
The man has style.
I just saw a picture of Spence rocking these sunnies, and now I want to find out where he got them from. Very cool (in my eyes).
And considering he is about to start his very first game at the World Cup, the full-back looks so relaxed.
I would be wetting myself…
‘Fans decide to walk to ground due to traffic’
Nick Pisa in Boston:
A mile from the Boston Stadium lengthy tailbacks built up on approach roads and many fans who were on buses decided to get off and walk rather than sit in stationary traffic. Those who did get off the special $95 return buses from Providence were then forced to walk back on themselves from parking lots.Fans were good natured and despite the size of the crowd there were no queues at the countless bars and restaurants around the impressive Boston Stadium.
Among traders doing brisk business were poncho sellers charging $10 for waterproofs they could be picked up for half price in grocery stores as rain was forecast and the ground has no roof.
Bellingham makes history
Jude Bellingham just keeps breaking records, doesn’t he?
At 22 years and 359 days, Bellingham is set to become the youngest man to reach 50 caps for England in the nation’s history. One hell of a stat.
After seeing this stat, I had a chat with my colleague about how many caps Bellingham would get. And well, we both agree he will smash Peter Shilton’s record of 125.
The man is on course to rack up at least 200 caps for the Three Lions, maybe even more.
He’s here for a good time and a long time.
Semenyo’s Struggles for The Black Stars
Gabriel Warren:
Antoine Semenyo has been in scintillating form this past season. The Man City forward bagged a career-high 17 Premier League goals and really hit the ground running after making the move from the South Coast to Manchester in January.
Yet this goalscoring prowess has not translated at all to his national side. The former Bournemouth man has only mustered up 3 goals in 35 appearances for Ghana, the last of which came over a year ago in March 2025 against Chad.
He has also failed to net a tournament goal in six appearances across both the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.
Whilst he failed to score in Ghana’s opening 1-0 win against Panama, he did scoop up the man of the match award, and manager Carlos Queiroz will be hoping his talismanic winger can make his mark tonight.
