45 min: … and Alexander-Arnold swings it in. Long. Anderson and Bellingham take turns to fashion space for a shot; neither manage to do so. There will be one additional first-half minute.

Some slapstick shenanigans on ITV as the Wembley water sprinklers turn on Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Mark Pougatch as Wright is mid-soliloquy in praise of Jude Bellingham. It’s not quite up there with your Harry Redknapp and Martin Keown touchline classics, but mildly entertaining nonetheless. Wright doesn’t look particularly amused, and tries to style it out by joking about all his wasted prep for the Bellingham bit, though his light-coloured suit now has moist patches, and one suspects he’s more concerned about the spatter than his patter. Keane remains admirably unperturbed, though you’d still pay cash money to witness any back-and-forth that may occur with the Wembley groundsman later on.

There’s a better-than-evens chance of England effectively qualifying for March’s quarter-finals tonight. Should they – as expected – beat Czechia, and should Spain – as expected – see off Croatia, England would find themselves comfortably in second spot on nine points, with the Croats in third on three. That wouldn’t put the Three Lions officially over the line, but Croatia would then only be able to at best tie England on points by the end of the group phase in November; in that scenario, it’d then go to the head-to-head, and the only way Croatia could win that is if they’d beaten England by an eight-goal margin at Wembley. Fair play if all this comes to pass.

Harry Kane, 124 caps and counting, speaks to ITV ahead of the next, and fairly important, one. “It’s always special … just seeing Wembley … I never take it for granted … it’s obviously a special night but we have to focus on the job … [my debut] was just as I dreamt it … I am extremely proud to represent England … that was an amazing moment for me, and I’ve been lucky to do it again a fair few times! … we’ve been extremely close [to winning a trophy] on many occasions … we’re closer than we’ve ever been before … we still have to prove it on the bigger stage … we’re in a good place, I’m in a good place, the team is looking really strong and hungry … we keep testing ourselves … hopefully the best is yet to come.”

Thomas Tuchel speaks to ITV. “There is never a perfect 90 minutes but it was a very, very good 90 minutes … a very impressive performance on and off the ball … for the whole period of the match … we felt it straight away from the start that we had a good performance … we have improved in the movements when Harry Kane drops … we have Jude Bellingham a bit closer to him … if both drop, Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka were always ready to go through the last line … we have worked on that … to fill the box … we had four or five people in the box … we are getting there … the front four love to play with each other … very dangerous … have full support from behind … I am hoping Morgan Rogers can prove a point today because we are saving some legs … [the longer international break] for patterns is very good … the language sinks in … a different style of play from the clubs … if you have more than two games you can have a training session, show, debrief … let the patterns sink in.”

Tuchel also reminisces about his time playing as a child in the back garden, pretending to be Peter Shilton and/or Ray Clemence. A laugh and a smile with ITV’s Mark Pougatch. He’s as relaxed and carefree as you’d expect for a man who has just seen his team score seven goals away from home.

The big news – of course – is Harry Kane’s record-equalling appearance for England. He leads the line tonight and by doing so, earns his 125th cap. He joins Peter Shilton at the head of a distinguished list (see below). Shilton took 21 years to clock up that number of caps; Kane has just needed 11, since coming on for Wayne Rooney against Lithuania as a 21-year-old in 2015 and taking just 79 seconds to score his first international goal.

The other bits of team news aren’t insignificant, though. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who made his first start for England in nearly two years last week in Prague, but sat out the weekend rout of Croatia, reclaims his spot at right-back. Jarell Quansah, who took his place in Rijeka, moves to the centre of defence. Meanwhile Myles Lewis-Skelly deputises for the injured Alex Scott, while Eberechi Eze replaces the in-form Anthony Gordon on the left flank. Morgan Rogers also gets a start.

England: Pickford, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Guehi, Hall, Anderson, Bellingham, Lewis-Skelly, Rogers, Kane, Eze.
Subs: Trafford, Steele, Saka, Gordon, Chalobah, Ngumoha, Branthwaite, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Gibbs-White, Lewis.

Czechia: Horníček, Coufal, Vitík, Hranáč, Sláma, Král, Sadílek, Šulc, Ambros, Naderi, Lingr.
Kovář, Kinský, Kričfaluši, Zmrzlý, Vašulín, Hložek, Sejk, Šubert, Bucha, Radosta, Macek, Sáček.

Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük (Netherlands).

It’s going to be a big evening for our Admin and Housekeeping department, as a couple of tables will need significantly updating by the end of it. First up there’s Group A3 of the Nations League, which currently stands like this …

1. Spain P3 GD+6 Pts 9
2. England P3 GD+8 Pts 6
3. Croatia P3 GD-9 Pts 3
4. Czechia P3 GD-5 Pts 0

… and there’ll also be the small matter of England men’s all-time appearance chart, the top of which is forecast to be hit by a crossfire Harry Kane. It’s a gas, gas, gas!

125: Peter Shilton
124: 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
91: Jordan Henderson, Jordan Pickford
90: Bryan Robson

Czechia have played 14 matches in the last 12 months. They’ve only won four of them: against San Marino, Gibraltar, Kosovo and Guatemala. They’ve lost their last four straight: against Mexico, Croatia, Spain and … England, who by contrast are coming off the back of a third-placed finish at the World Cup, a decent showing against the new world champions, and an historic win in Croatia. We could go on – England are fourth in the Fifa rankings, the Czechs 50th – but there’s nothing to be gained in belabouring the point … and in any case football doesn’t always work like that, which is why we keep turning up and tuning in. Will England consolidate their position in Group A3 with a view to making next spring’s quarter-finals, or can the Czechs spring a surprise and keep their (admittedly faint) hopes alive? We find out from 7.45pm BST. It’s on!