England are set to play an extra fixture in a move which would come as a major surprise to fans.
England are set to break new ground by becoming the first nation to play an extra fixture during their World Cup campaign.
The Three Lions kick off their World Cup campaign against familiar foes Croatia at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Wednesday night.
With the amount of participants increased to 48 for the first time, an extra round has been added which will see the final 32 teams in the first knockout phase.
But England are already poised to add another game to their schedule. According to reports from the BBC, England are in talks over a friendly game with MLS side Sporting Kansas City.
Discussions are ongoing and the friendly is not yet locked in but the idea is for England to take on the two-time MLS Cup winners in between the World Cup matches with Croatia and Ghana.
England have already faced off against Miami FC when they were based in West Palm Beach, with Ivan Toney scoring a hat-trick in a 6-0 win a day on from the Costa Rica friendly victory.
They are now based in Kansas City for the entirety of the tournament, training at Swope Soccer Village.
Asked about potentially playing a behind-closed-doors game, Thomas Tuchel said: “It is true that we try to play an in-house match after the match against Croatia. It is simply to use the time.
“We have many days in between the matches and we can give the players who have not played so many minutes tomorrow just a load and an actual match load and not only from training.
“We did this after the match against Costa Rica and I think we will do it one last time on the day after the Croatia game.”
England star could get perfect opportunity in friendly fixture
A country has never played a friendly during a World Cup tournament but Tuchel sees great benefit in adding one more game in in order to maintain the sharpness of those who don’t get a high amount of minutes against Croatia.
Several fans took to social media to voice their annoyance at captain and key player Harry Kane starting the match, with many suggesting an injury to the Bayern Munich striker could all but end England’s hopes of lifting the trophy.
One said: “Watching every Harry Kane touch terrified of an injury…”
Another added: “Why start Kane against 250-1 opposition at best? It makes no sense in the event of an injury to Kane.”
A third claimed: “Why is Kane playing tonight on that terrible pitch!? Wrap that man in cotton wool until 3 hours before our game against Croatia, please.”
While a fourth commented: “There is no need to play Kane until the Croatia game, in case of injury.”
Despite the concerns, Kane opened the scoring, nodding home Djed Spence’s cross just before half-time.
Following the New Zealand clash, England take on Costa Rica on June 10. As previously mentioned, England take on Croatia in their World Cup opener before facing Ghana and Panama.
Thomas Tuchel on Harry Kane’s fitness
With the England striker having played 51 games for Bayern this season, Tuchel insisted that he would “take care of him” throughout the tournament by trying to “take some minute off him”.
Tuchel said: “Ideally we can take some minutes off him, but if the matches are close do we really do this? Do we take our main goalscorer, our captain off? Maybe not.
“The most important thing is the shape Harry is in. He’s in top shape, he is ready to go. He was the leading player who set the intensity in training today, on a defensive training day. He’s used to high pressing, high intensity in the opponent’s half with Bayern Munich.
“We don’t have to be worried about him at all, even if it’s hot and humid. He’s shown the whole week he is ready, determined, he was so influential in Bayern’s campaign, he scored three in the cup final.
“We have some good options but Harry is the main guy up front.”
