We saw the final (official) pre-World Cup friendlies take place last night, as England and Portugal secured morale-boosting wins over Costa Rica and Nigeria.
As ever, there were some notable takeaways for Fantasy FIFA World Cup 2026 managers ahead of Round 1.
You can find Opta data from these two friendlies in our Members Area, via the links below:
ENGLAND 3-0 Costa Rica
- Goals: Rice, Gordon, Watkins
- Assist: Gordon
- The game was delayed by an hour due to storms, something we should be used to after the FIFA Club World Cup.
- This was complete and utter dominance from England: three goals, a clean sheet, a massive 28 shots, five big chances, 81% possession, 11 corners – this is how you play a pre-tournament friendly! A lot of big teams have failed to convince in friendlies so far, so this England performance, even against weaker opposition, was impressive. The Three Lions also only conceded one shot, too.
- This was basically the first team that started this one, with an exception or two.
- Pickford played behind a backline of O’Reilly, Stones, Konsa and James, although Guehi came on in the second half. You’d expect him to start over Stones. James got 63 minutes, which is a decent run-out for him.
- Central midfield was Rice and Anderson, while Bellingham also started, and he may now have the upper hand over Rogers. Gordon started ahead of Rashford and while the latter did come on for 20 minutes, you’d think Gordon has guaranteed a start in round 1 after this performance. The Aston Villa duo of Rogers and Watkins featured in the second half and will be key off the bench in the tournament.
- It came out this week that Saka is not ready to play 90 minutes, which wasn’t really a shock. He’ll likely start matches but come off early, so Madueke started ahead of him here. Kane also started.
- There are still question marks over England’s attacking squad depth. While Foden and Palmer didn’t deserve a call-up on form, they are capable of the ‘special’; that’s another debate, though. England’s issue is that a lot of their attackers don’t go into the competition in form, but maybe a change of scenery can help turn that around.
- Gordon was excellent, scoring a penalty (with Kane, Rashford and Toney not on the field) and assisting.
- O’Reilly had two attempts and made a key pass, while fellow full-back James couldn’t do much. Rice and Anderson were very good. The former scored and created three key passes.
- Madueke had three shots – his big chance, a sitter, hit the woodwork. A classic Madueke performance of threat but questionable end product! Bellingham supplied two key passes and had one shot, while Kane had three attempts and created two key passes but was quite quiet. Rogers was the most productive of the subs, registering two key passes and three attempts.
- A great overall team performance, as Tuchel would have wanted.
- England have a behind-closed-doors game against Miami FC before they face Croatia, and a lot of the second stringers will likely feature in that.
PORTUGAL 2-1 Nigeria
- Goals: Neto, Conceicao
- Assists: Dalot, Cancelo
- It was pretty much a first team for Portugal, bar a couple of players, who we’ll mention shortly.
- It’s back-to-back 2-1s from them and it’s not been entirely convincing, as the opposition haven’t been super strong. Maybe something to think about.
- Portugal had 61% possession, three big chances, and 13 attempts on goal. They conceded to Nigeria but that’s successive games now without conceding a big chance, which is encouraging.
- Costa was in goal, as we’d expect. Dalot started ahead of Nuno Mendes, who is clearly being managed. Mendes only played 35 minutes but Martinez revealed after the match that that was the plan. It’s not great, though, playing little more than half an hour before the tournament starts, and Mendes has had his issues towards the end of the season for PSG. Inacio and Dias played centre-back but there is still no indication that Inacio is nailed; he only played 45 minutes, with the rest of the backline, and Renato Veiga could threaten. Semedo started at left back, but Cancelo replaced him in the second half.
- Vitinha and Joao Neves played 45 minutes after Champions League duty, so they look ready.
- Neto and Trincao were on the flanks, with Bruno Fernandes central, with all three coming off at the interval. Leao – missing here – will not face further suspension for his fight and red card in the previous friendly, so he’ll likely come straight in on the left. Portugal do lack convincing options on the wings, though, one of their weakest spots.
- Ronaldo played more minutes than most, lasting 65 minutes, with Martinez saying afterwards that that was the plan for his workload.
- Full-backs Dalot and Cancelo provided assists, the latter registering three key passes. This was a good indication of how attacking their full-backs can be. Mendes even had time to create a big chance.
- Neto scored but did little outside of that, and Trincao was worse. It was a fairly quiet one for Bruno as well: one big chance created and one shot on target. Joao Felix came on and had two attempts on goal, hitting the woodwork with one, while Conceicao emerged from the bench and scored.
- Ronaldo could have scored a hat-trick, missing three big chances.
- It was a solid win for Portugal, but not 100% convincing. The full-backs created and Ronaldo missed big chances (as he has all season), so maybe things went as expected!
