Trent Alexander-Arnold confirmed for England start against Costa Rica

Our World Cup countdown continues as we look at the 2014 quarter-finalists Our World Cup countdown continues as we look at the 2014 quarter

Only John Stones retains his starting place from the 2-1 friendly win over Nigeria at Wembley on Saturday as Gareth Southgate shuffles his pack for England's first match at Elland Road in 16 years. A nice problem to have, says Max Liu, as he discusses the big questions in attack and defence.

If England progress to the knock-out stages in Russian Federation, there are likely to be occasions when Southgate is tempted to play both players in the same team, but with Tunisia expected to adopt a defensive approach as they begin their World Cup campaign, it is likely to be either Henderson or Dier alongside Dele Alli in nine days' time.

South Korea were held to an unimpressive 0-0 draw against Bolivia while Iceland, the surprise packages of Euro 2016 who are looking to pull off more upsets in Russian Federation, drew 2-2 at home to Ghana after leading 2-0.

Dele Alli didn't quite match his stellar Spurs form from 2016/17, scoring nine Premier League goals compared to 18 a season earlier, so talk has turned to Lingard displacing his Premier League rival in England's XI. "He played with a real swagger", Southgate told reporters. "We've a decision to make for the first game".

Rashford's eighth-minute dribble past Waston was a thing of wonder; its true majesty only revealed by replays.

It was an absolute screamer.

Everton, Newcastle United and Leicester City are reportedly interested in signing Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford on a loan deal. If so, it's bringing out the best in him.

Nadal's Roland Garros set streak ended by Schwartzman
The Spanish third seed, who was the champion in Paris in 2016, swept aside the Russian 6-2, 6-1 in just an hour and 10 minutes. Rafael Nadal was locked in an epic battle on Philippe-Chatrier before the rain ended play early on Wednesday night.

Southgate was speaking for the first time since Rose's interview about his battle with mental health issues, with the left-back getting a fine reception as he returned to Leeds. Mourinho opted to keep an injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the club, believing he would provide better back-up as a central striker to Romelu Lukaku than Rashford. And it would nearly certainly mean no starting place for Raheem Sterling.

And Rashford admitted afterwards that this was his best game in an England shirt. Rashford, meanwhile, always looks fearless on worldwide duty and his pace, never mind the thunderous shooting ability he showed against Costa Rica, will trouble opposing defender.

JORDAN HENDERSON is hoping his performance in Thursday's friendly win over Costa Rica helped cement his place in England's starting line-up for their World Cup opener against Tunisia.

"They'd possibly be a little less malleable and a little less open to new suggestions, but they really are having a go at everything and they are keen to show people how much it means to them to play for England".

Rose has had a hard season for Tottenham, as he discussed in an extraordinary interview this week, but on Thursday he played with panache.

Federation Internationale de Football Association said it had allocated 2,403,116 World Cup tickets since sales started in September, 2017, with Latin Americans among the biggest non-Russian buyers. Costa Rica plays Serbia in Group E the previous day.

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