England travel to Rijeka on Saturday to face Croatia in the Nations League, the third match of a four-fixture international block that concludes against Czechia at Wembley next Tuesday. The stakes are unusually concrete: England’s 2-0 win over Czechia earlier in the sequence was their eighth successive away win in all competitions, and victory in Croatia would make it nine — a run the national team has not managed since the spell between December 1965 and October 1967 under World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey.
Harry Kane has a landmark of his own in reach. A goal in Rijeka would make him only the fourth England player to score in six consecutive away matches, a list currently comprising James Windridge (six, March to June 1908), Tom Finney (seven, September 1946 to May 1948) and Stan Mortensen (six, May 1947 to October 1948). Kane and Anthony Gordon have been England’s standout performers so far in a campaign that has brought a defeat by Spain and that 2-0 win over Czechia, with Spain’s meeting with Czechia in Oviedo the other game in the group on Saturday.
Scotland’s visit to Skopje to meet North Macedonia in League B Group 1 arrives with a rather less happy set of numbers attached. The 3-0 home defeat by Switzerland on Tuesday, in which an early red card for Jack Hendry effectively ended Sébastien Pocognoli’s home debut as a contest, means the Scots have gone four matches without scoring for the first time in 55 years. They have taken one point and scored no goals from their opening two Nations League fixtures, following a 0-0 draw in Slovenia. Their hosts offer some encouragement: North Macedonia have conceded five goals without reply in their first two games and have failed to score in six matches since a 7-1 defeat by Wales last November.
Sunday’s headline act is the friendly between the United States and Mexico at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, where Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT will measure their progress against Concacaf’s leading nation. The USA arrive on the back of a 4-1 win over Peru and a 4-2 win over Chile in St Louis, with teenagers Julian Hall and Mathis Albert making an impact. Rafael Márquez’s Mexico come to Arizona after a pair of 1-1 draws against Colombia and Peru.
In the Women’s Super League, Arsenal’s trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City already looks significant. Renée Slegers’s side trail the leaders by seven points, and defeat would leave last season’s runners-up 10 points adrift after only five games, following their 1-0 loss at Chelsea last weekend. Arsenal also let a two-goal lead slip in their midweek Champions League meeting with Paris FC, a 2-2 draw remembered for Leah Williamson conceding a late penalty by handling the ball from a goal-kick. It was the first time Slegers’s team had scored twice in six fixtures, and they have won only two matches this season. City, for their part, drew 1-1 with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Thursday.
Two more Nations League fixtures follow on Sunday evening. The Republic of Ireland play Israel behind closed doors in Serbia, a match expected to be dogged by political fallout between the two nations over the conflict in Gaza. The Republic sit third in their group at the halfway point after a 2-2 draw with Austria, three points behind the leaders and level on four points with Kosovo, having beaten Israel 3-0 in the reverse fixture in Debrecen, Hungary. Wales, who upset World Cup finalists Norway 2-1 in Nations League A on Thursday, host Denmark in Cardiff looking to avenge last weekend’s 2-0 defeat in Copenhagen. Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway are also in action.