47 min: Rice has the opportunity to break into acres of space down the right. He races gamely, if ungainly, clanking the ball a couple of times down the wing before an even heavier touch allows Stanišić to come across and take it away. If Rice’s run had been set to music, it would have been set to the opening few bars of this …

The teams are out! England are in their first-choice white, forcing Croatia out of their famous red-and-white checks and into their alternative kit of blue. A large tifo in the stand to celebrate “England’s finest: Kane 126”. Kane has four special mascots with him: his four children, all with England tops and “Kane 126” on their back. Kane first lifts his Ballon d’Or, then receives a gong from none other than Mr 125, Peter Shilton, who graciously smiles and congratulates his usurper. Luka Modrić then arrives with a replica of a ball taken by English industrialists to Croatia in 1880. And finally here comes the Prince of Wales, to give Harry one of those Kane 126 shirts in a lovely easy-to-hang frame. Kane raises his arms in weary triumph; after dealing with that little lot, he must be knackered already. We’ll be off in a minute!

Pre-match postbag. “With tonight’s record being broken, spare a thought for the holder of a more unwanted record, Emlyn Hughes. He won 62 caps and never got to go to the World Cup or Euros finals” – Roger Kirkby

“In the non-Kane-focused-Croatian World of Sport, does Modric’s pine-based residency mean he carried the can for that thing that happened last time? Is he now being shown a Ronaldo-shaped door (the other one)? Do Croatians want this? Is there a ‘Modrić van’ waiting for him every time he is picked?” – Ian Copestake

“Just noticed that if you combine the top 11 of the England appearance list you: (a) get a pretty sensible team, and (b) recreate both England’s traditional left-side problem AND the Gerrard-Lampard conundrum.

Shilton
Walker/Moore/Wright/Cole
Beckham/Lampard/Gerrard/Charlton
Rooney/Kane

Not sure what conclusions to draw from this” – Alex Coldrick-Ford

… meanwhile, as for the new-look central defensive pairing of Jarell Quansah and Dan Burn, Tuchel says … “It is never easy … it is a crucial pairing in the centre of defence … we are forced to do it … normally Marc [Guehi] and Ezri [Konsa] are the ones to have the shirt … John Stones is not with us … so Jarell [Quansah] kept his place from the Czech game and we went 51 percent for Dan Burn because of his experience … and we have Lewis Hall and Anthony Gordon … so we have a bit of a left side from Newcastle … they know each other … they have done it at the highest level in the Champions League.”

… and finally a word about the goalkeepers, with a trip to Spain at the weekend coming up. “I think we will change [from Jordan Pickford to James Trafford] but let’s see.”

Jude and Jobe Bellingham will become the 22nd set of brothers to play for England if Jobe gets off the bench at any point tonight. If Jude remains on the pitch, they’ll be just the 11th to play together for England: only Bobby and Jackie Charlton, and Gary and Phil Neville, have done that since the war. Here is the full list of brothers to have represented England …

Charlie (1872) and William Clegg (1873-79)
William (1875-77) and Herbert Rawson (1875)
Hubert (1873-78) and Frank Heron (1876)
Alfred (1877) and Ed Lyttelton (1878)
Ernest (1876), Charlie (1879-87) and Arthur Bambridge (1881)
Arthur (1876-83) and Harry Cursham (1880-84)
Fred (1880-82) and Jack Hargreaves (1881)
Arthur (1885-90) and Percy Walters (1885-90)
Alf (1882-84) and Charley Dobson (1886)
Charlie (1888) and Alf Shelton (1889-92)
Robert (1893-94) and Arthur Topham (1894)
Charlie (1890-93) and Tom Perry (1898)
Frank (1898-1903) and Fred Forman (1899)
Charles (1889) and Geoffrey Wilson (1900)
Bertie (1901) and Rex Corbett (1903)
Frank (1922-1926) and Reg Osbourne (1927)
Clem (1924) and George Stephenson (1928-1931)
Jack (1931) and Sep Smith (1935)
Bobby (1958-1970) and Jack Charlton (1965-1970)
Gary (1995-2007) and Phil Neville (1996-2007)
Nathaniel (2018) and Trevoh Chalobah (2025)

England: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Burn, Hall, Rice, Anderson, Jude Bellingham, Gordon, Kane, Rogers.
Subs: Trafford, Steele, Gibbs-White, White, Hill, Branthwaite, Jobe Bellingham, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Ngumoha, Eze, King.

Croatia: Livakovic, Stanisic, Vuskovic, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Vlasic, Smolcic, Baturina, Sucic, Matanovic, Misic.
Subs: Pandur, Kotarski, Caleta-Car, Galesic, Majer, Beljo, Modric, Budimir, Mario Psaslic, Hrgovic, Marco Pasalic, Soticek.

Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark)

A whopping 40 days ago, this happened …

… and while Croatia will be desperate to summon some sort of face-saving, reputation-salvaging, self-respect-restoring response tonight, they’d do well to consider that: (a) it’s not very likely, if their defenders again randomly skitter around like they did in Rijeka; (b) it’d almost certainly make not a jot of difference to their borderline-non-existent hopes of making the quarters^†, and; (c) hey, they’ve always got the Euro 2008 qualifiers and the 2018 World Cup semi to keep them warm at night. So in that three-part sense, this is a bit of a non-event, though tell that to Harry Kane, who will break the all-time appearance record for the Three Lions^‡. Kick-off at Wembley is at 7.45pm GMT. It, almost exclusively for England, is on!

†: After the first four matches in Group A3, the table looks like this …

1. Spain P4 GD+7 Pts 12
2. England P4 GD+11 Pts 9
3. Croatia P4 GD-10 Pts 3
4. Czechia P4 GD-8 Pts 0

… which means Spain are definitely through. England are as well, if we’re all being honest with each other. They can only be pipped by Croatia if they lose both of their final two matches in this November break (tonight’s game, then away on Sunday night to Spain) while Croatia win both of theirs (this one, then their hosting of Czechia) and even then, because things would go to the head-to-head, Croatia would have to beat England tonight by a minimum of seven goals.

‡: The all-time England men’s appearance list …

125: Peter Shilton, Harry Kane
120: Wayne Rooney
115: David Beckham
114: Steven Gerrard
108: Bobby Moore
107: Ashley Cole
106: Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard
105: Billy Wright
96: Kyle Walker
94: John Stones
92: Jordan Pickford
91: Jordan Henderson
90: Bryan Robson