Italy vs England LIVE: Nations League result, final score and reaction as Azzurri win to relegate England

For King and country

Today’s match against Italy is the first time the men’s senior England team will take to the pitch since the death of the Queen.

They will wear black armbands to mark the occasion, with more tributes planned for the game against Germany at Wembley on Monday night.

Southgate and his players will also sing “God Save the King” before kick-off in honour of King Charles III, the first time that version of the National Anthem has been used ahead of an England football match since November 1951.

Former England defender Glen Johnson has questioned the wisdom of Gareth Southgate remaining loyal to the likes of Harry Maguire on the eve of a World Cup.

The Manchester United captain, who has been under scrutiny for the last 18 months, is not playing regularly for his club as new manager Erik ten Tag prefers the centre-back partnership of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane.

Maguire’s club-mate Luke Shaw is also in the England squad despite making just two Premier League starts, one of which saw him hauled off at half-time with the side 4-0 down to Brentford.

Southgate also called up Kalvin Phillips, who had managed just 14 minutes of football since moving to Manchester City in the summer, before he withdrew with the recurrence of a shoulder injury.

Johnson said while loyalty goes a long way, picking those who are not playing regularly can have significant drawbacks in tournament football.

Gareth Southgate and Jack Grealish are both former Aston Villa captains but the similarities seem to end there. They are the paragon of responsibility and the free spirit, the prefect and the rebel, the man who measures every comment carefully and the carefree character whose lifestyle can attract attention, writes Richard Jolly.

Listen to Grealish, however, and they sound the unlikely alliance. “I’m not just saying this, I have a great relationship with him,” said the Manchester City midfielder. “I’m not too sure how many caps I’ve actually got for England football team and they have all been under him.”

The number is 23, but the criticisms are that Southgate was too slow to call up Grealish and too reluctant to start him; 11 of those appearances have come off the bench. “I’ve come on a lot as a sub during the Euros,” Grealish said. “Obviously, I would love to play every game but it’s a big squad with top players all over so if that was my role then that’s fine. I’ll do whatever I can to help the team.”

Read the rest of Rich’s piece below:

Harry Kane has credited work with a new physio for being in the best condition he has ever been, as he spoke of how a hamstring injury in January 2020 sparked a career-changing re-assessment of his approach. The England captain has not had a major issue since then, despite previously suffering from repeated ankle injuries that had a knock-on effect.

While Kane would not name his new physio, only admitting he is Spanish, he was effusive about the results. The striker said he came across him through an athlete friend, and works with him separately from Tottenham - but that the club obviously know about it.

“I feel great - put it that way. Whether it’s the fittest I’ve been I don’t know but I feel really good.”

Banning anti-discrimination armbands at the World Cup 2022 in Qatar would send out a “devastating” signal, a world players’ union chief has said.

Fifa is yet to confirm whether captains from nine European nations, including England and Wales, will be permitted to wear the ‘OneLove’ armband at matches in the tournament this winter.

Same-sex relationships and their promotion are illegal in Qatar, which has also been criticised over its treatment of migrant workers.

Fifpro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann urged football’s world governing body to “think very hard” before banning the armbands and expects some players will take a stand on human rights issues at the finals regardless.

England manager Gareth Southgate believes there is “not a lot more players can do” to tackle the human rights issues in Qatar after the decision to wear special captain’s armbands during the World Cup was criticised.

The Football Association announced on Wednesday it has joined nine other European federations in joining the OneLove anti-discrimination campaign.

As part of that, England captain Harry Kane will wear an armband supporting the campaign at the finals this winter, along with the skippers of the eight other European nations signed up whose teams have qualified.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham says he has been assured that LGBTQ+ England fans will not face arrest for holding hands or kissing in public at the World Cup in Qatar.

Leonardo Bonucci labelled England new boy Ivan Toney “the new one” ahead of their potential meeting in Milan.

The Three Lions take on Italy in Nations League Group A on Friday evening in one of their penultimate tune-up before the World Cup in Qatar.

Following five goals this season, Gareth Southgate handed Brentford striker Toney a first call up to the national team this week.

Bonucci, though, is not too familiar with the 26-year-old.

Ivan Toney took the road less travelled to the top but “never doubted” his England opportunity would come, with the Brentford striker vowing to seize his chance to make the World Cup.

A product of the Northampton youth set-up, Toney spent loan stints at Barnsley, Shrewsbury, Scunthorpe and Wigan having failed to make the breakthrough after joining Newcastle.

He left St James’ Park permanently for Peterborough in 2018 and a goal-laden spell there saw him join Brentford two years later – a move that has gone better than either party could have dreamt of as he stands to become the club’s first England international since Leslie Smith in 1939.

The 26-year-old helped the Bees to promotion in his first campaign and five league goals at the start of this season led Gareth Southgate to include the uncapped frontman in England’s final camp before Qatar.

Gareth Southgate says he is willing to stake his “reputation” on Harry Maguire, offering the struggling Manchester United centre-half his full backing as he described him as one of England’s “best” and “most important” players, who can do things in the squad that others can’t. The international manager went so far as to describe Maguire and John Stones “as good as any in world football at” progressing up the pitch with the ball.

Such is the 29-year-old’s standing in the England squad that Southgate said he didn’t feel the need for any additional talks with him, despite being dropped from the United team. The feeling around the England camp was that Maguire would start the game against Italy at the San Siro on Friday night, and he clearly remains one of Southgate’s first-choice centre-halves. That was made pretty clear by his pre-game comments, as the England manager stressed he would be willing to stake his “reputation” on such decisions.

“Whatever reputation I have I’m putting it on there,” Southgate said. “I think, look, you always have to back your judgement and we feel he is an important player.”

On Tuesday evening, Gareth Southgate called the England team together for the first proper meeting since the Hungary humiliation. He didn’t need to say that every minute counts from now on, because all of the players know it.

They’re fully aware things need to be different from June. The England manager, for his part, would prefer a lot of things to be rather different right now.

It is difficult to complain about a trip to Milan in this kind of weather – in the middle of fashion week – but Southgate could really do with 10 days of it, and perhaps more forgiving fixtures. That’s what World Cup preparation camps usually look like as managers try to build the right atmosphere. That’s nevertheless what this represents.