Black armbands will be worn and a period of silence observed at the England v Australia friendly to remember the innocent victims of the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
The Football Association has confirmed its plans to pay tribute, having come under pressure to illuminate the Wembley arch in the colours of the Israeli flag following attacks by Hamas militants over the weekend which were followed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
“On Friday evening, we will remember the innocent victims of the devastating events in Israel and Palestine,” the FA said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with them, and their families and friends in England and Australia and with all the communities who are affected by this ongoing conflict. We stand for humanity and an end to the death, violence, fear and suffering.
“England and Australia players will wear black armbands during their match at Wembley Stadium and there will also be a period of silence held before kick-off.”
The statement added that flags, replica kits and other representations of nationality not linked to England or Australia will not be permitted inside Wembley on Friday night.
Harry Maguire admits he cannot keep just playing once a month for Manchester United but remains confident of winning back his place and helping Erik ten Hag’s team climb the table.
It has been a bumpy ride since the 30-year-old starred in England’s run to the Euro 2020 final, with the defender falling down the pecking order at Old Trafford and then losing the captaincy.
A widely-discussed summer move to West Ham did not materialise and settled Maguire remained at a club where he is trying to get his career back on track with next summer’s Euros looming large.
Gareth Southgate has been a staunch supporter of the centre-back throughout his ups and downs but admitted to concerns over his level of involvement, which the ex-United skipper is determined to improve.
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“I have belief in my ability and what I have done in my career as every player should,” Maguire said.
“Every player who is on the bench should believe they should be starting, otherwise they wouldn’t be playing at a high level. I am no different.
“Listen, it’s been tough. I want to play games. I want to feel important to the club and I want to feel important to the rest of the team.
“At the moment I haven’t been playing anywhere near as much as I’d like. It’s the bottom line of it.
“I’ve just got to make sure I am ready to take the opportunities when they come along.”
Asked when gametime becomes an issue and, given Euro 2024 is coming up, whether that could be sooner rather than later, said: “Yeah, of course.
“I mean, I’m not going to sit here all my life and play once every month and if it carries on then I’m sure myself and the club will sit down and have a chat about things.
“But, honestly, at the moment I’m fully focused on two games for England, two big games.
“Then I’m fully focused on fighting and trying to get back my place at Manchester United and helping the team climb up the league to where we should be.”
England face Australia in a Wembley friendly on Friday before attention turns to the crunch Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy.
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Maguire has kept his England place despite his struggles to break his way into Ten Hag’s line-up, making his first Premier League start of the campaign in Saturday’s 2-1 comeback win against Brentford.
“It’s not my decision whether I start the next game or not,” said the defender, who provided the assist for Scott McTominay’s winner. “I’m unsure on that. I’m sure in a couple of weeks I’ll go back and find out.
“Listen, if you look back on my last 15 to 20 starts for club and country, I would be happy to sit here and say ‘I’m really happy with my performances’.
“My record under this manager speaks for itself. I haven’t started as many games as I’d like, but my win percentage when I’ve played is ridiculously high.
“And of course there’s times when I can do more and times when I can improve and help the team, but, yeah, I’m just wanting to help the team.
“I’m wanting to help the team get out of this position that we’re in at the moment and hopefully we can do that in the coming weeks.”
Maguire benefitted from a string of defensive absentees as he made just his ninth Premier League start since Ten Hag arrived.
The Dutchman has always spoken positively about the defender in public, saying in August that he “has the abilities to be a top-class centre-back” and must “fight for his place”.
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“I can only do what I’ve been doing in terms of when I’ve come into the team, bringing positive performances,” Maguire said.
“I’ve started two games this season and come on in a few off the bench, but, yeah, keep working hard in training.
“The manager can only watch training and make his decision from training and the games when I get the opportunity to play.
“I’ll keep working hard, I’ll keep pushing. I have great belief in myself.”
England forward Ollie Watkins is so averse to the public spotlight that he no longer goes shopping, but knows his profile is only going to get bigger.
The Aston Villa striker has earned a recall to the England squad for forthcoming games against Australia and Italy after his season burst into life with four goals in two games at the end of last month.
Watkins, who was not included in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the September games, does not feel comfortable walking around his local supermarket.
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But he also accepts that if he keeps banging in the goals for Villa and England, he is only going to get more attention.
“I go under the radar, maybe,” the 27-year-old admitted. “I’m not talked about enough profile-wise. But I know I have been producing on the pitch since Unai Emery came in. But I do go under the radar.
“I don’t know if it’s me being at Villa. You get some players that are just likeable and out there. I’m not really too fussed about that.
“I just like playing football. Maybe a lot of people said to me I need to push my profile. But I am happy with what I am doing on the pitch and that’s all that matters to me.
“The bigger you are, the more you are in the spotlight. It’s not that I don’t want that, it is doing my job. If I am doing my job and playing well, my profile will raise naturally.
“I remember when I moved from Brentford to Villa, I used to just go and shop in Sainsbury’s normal at Brentford.
“I came to try to do it at Villa and I couldn’t. I came home and I was fuming and I said to my missus I am never going out again, you will have to do the shop.
“Since then I don’t do the shopping, I don’t get ‘bothered’ but a lot of people want photos.
“I had my earphones in and people were like – they take two looks – is that him? When I see that people have clocked me, normally I try to avoid (them). Not because I don’t want to interact with them…once one person asks for a photo then two or three do and it’s hard to do shopping.”
Watkins believes the arrival of Villa boss Emery last year was the catalyst for kick-starting his career.
“Definitely, under (Steven) Gerrard, I know he played me all the time – I’ve played under all managers – but I wasn’t really getting the best out of my game,” he said.
“That wasn’t down to him, I had just kind of fallen into a rut, but I feel like I have gone on a different path and really focused on being a striker.
“Before I was trying to do everything, trying to cross it and get on the end of my own cross and head it. Now I am just focused, being the main man.
“He put a lot of faith in me and gave me confidence to go out and perform, just focusing on scoring goals and helping the team.
“I definitely felt like, I came from Brentford, I scored a lot of goals and in my first year I did well and then I found I hit a little bit of a rut.
“It is hard. When you are in that rut, you don’t know where you are going to end up or what is going to happen.
“I didn’t see my career anywhere else but Villa but it was hard to try and get out of the rut when it wasn’t going great for me.”
Australia play England at Wembley on Friday night but former national team head coach Ange Postecoglou does not envisage football truly taking off in his home country like it dominates in his current residence.
Postecoglou has enjoyed an excellent start at Tottenham and they are joint-leaders of the Premier League after eight matches going into this month’s international break.
Optimism is rife at Spurs but their 58-year-old manager remains pessimistic about the state of football in Australia, despite his nation co-hosting a successful Women’s World Cup this summer where the Matildas finished fourth.
Postecoglou spent four years in charge of the Socceroos and – despite achieving plenty – he has given up hope of the sport cracking life Down Under with subtle digs aimed at governing body Football Australia ahead of Friday’s friendly clash in London.
Asked about his Asian Cup win on home soil in 2015, Postecoglou replied: “It didn’t make an impact back there and that was kind of my frustration.
“I don’t think that anything they can achieve… when you look at what the Matildas did at the World Cup, unbelievable but you still won’t see an influx of resources to the game. You won’t. I guarantee it.
“They’ll build stadiums and other codes will use them. I just don’t think the nation as a whole has that inside them to understand you can make an impact on the world of football but it requires a kind of nationalistic approach that I just don’t think Australians – at their core – are really interested in.
“There’s a couple of things. One of them is obviously the sporting landscape, where there’s some pretty strong codes there that have generationally dominated the landscape.
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“There’s Aussie Rules, that’s the indigenous sport of Australia. It’s kind of unique to them and they take great pride in protecting as their code. The rugby codes dominate.
“It’s very hard for football to make an impact in that space and I guess then the flipside of that is just how global the sport of football is.
“If I can compare that to a country like Japan, who also have the tyranny of distance and baseball’s pretty strong, they plant a lot of resources into football and you can see that’s making an impact. I don’t see Australia down that road.”
Japan was Postecoglou’s next destination when he walked away from the Socceroos job after he helped his country qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
The ex-Yokohama boss had managed Australia at the 2014 edition, but his departure seven months out from the global showpiece was a surprise and at the time he described the job as “taking a toll” both personally and professionally.
Postecoglou has been involved in coaching since 1996 and while he has taken the Premier League by storm so far, he does not expect his time at Tottenham to change the landscape of football in Australia.
“I don’t. I don’t know and maybe that’s just me, not being cynical, but I gave up that fight,” he explained.
“It’s a much easier space for me to live in because I was so frustrated for so long. It was my biggest frustration. One of my major drivers for doing what I did was to do that – to change football in Australia and that’s the reason I left.
“I felt I hadn’t made an impact at all. That’s easier for me to deal with than to think maybe I still can now with what I’m doing. I just think I’d be disappointed, so I’d prefer to think it’s not going to happen.
“I walked away from a World Cup. We qualified and I walked away. The reason I walked away was I just didn’t enjoy what I was doing.
“It’s not just doing the job and winning games of football, it’s got to be a higher purpose. My higher purpose in Australia was to change the game. I just don’t think that will happen.
“It was the right decision for me (to leave), it was the right decision for where I saw the next stage of my career and if I didn’t make that decision at that time, if I had waited until after the World Cup, I’ve got no doubt I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
Postecoglou replied no when asked if he would manage Australia again and laughed off talk of replacing England chief Gareth Southgate.
He added: “England? Oh, come on mate. They’ve got a fantastic manager and I’m eight games into a Tottenham career. That’s how I think.”
England have been watching footage of their calamitous defeat by Fiji in August as a reminder of what not to do in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final.
Fiji stormed Twickenham 30-22 to claim their first ever victory over the red rose in eight meetings and defence coach Kevin Sinfield has been showing clips of the worst moments to the squad ahead of the rematch in Marseille.
To offset memories of the one the nation’s lowest ebbs, Sinfield has also been demonstrating to England how far they have successfully rebuilt come since that grim day.
“That match has been brought up this week. We would have been stupid not to because it was almost like a line in the sand, something for us to step forward from,” hooker Jamie George said.
“We learned a huge amount that week and we are a significantly better side on the back of it.
“We weren’t physical enough and some clips have been shown because it is a reminder we can’t be that team again, playing against a very, very good Fiji who are very dangerous when you give them what they want.
“Kev Sinfield said ‘I wasn’t sure about showing you this, but we can’t be this team again’.
“We are still hurting from performances like that, I still hurt from performances three years ago. You don’t like to be reminded of those things but if that can fuel the fire then why not?
“It has been received really well and the way we trained today (Wednesday) showed our intent is going to be very different, there was a bite to training.
“We probably got a few things wrong tactically during the week of that game but emotionally and physically we were off as well for whatever reason. It was us not being the England team we wanted to be.
“Fiji running riot at Twickenham and it’s been like ‘that can’t happen’ and then showing some positive clips of where we have come to now, how we have defended through the World Cup.”
Since that victory, the Islanders’ progress has been mixed with the narrowest of defeats to Wales and a victory over Australia, followed by an escape against Georgia and shock loss to Portugal.
They grew steadily worse as Pool C unfolded, perhaps in evidence of the pressure they are under to meet the expectations of a hopeful nation and at being cast as darlings of the World Cup.
England are significant favourites heading into the Stade Velodrome showdown but lightning could strike twice against one of the most naturally gifted teams in the tournament.
“I’m a fan of their work. I like how they have grown their set piece, everyone talks about Fiji and thinks about their offloading game, which they are fantastic at, they talk about the way they move the ball but they are a team that if you break it down are based around the set piece,” George said.
“They have big men in the pack who know what they are doing, they have played in top leagues for a long time. The way they have evolved their game is impressive and they deserve to be in this quarter-final.”
Reece Topley insisted he was just getting started on his “unfinished business” in World Cup cricket after blowing Bangladesh away with four wickets in Dharamshala.
Topley claimed four for 43 as England coasted to victory against the Tigers, making a big impression after being recalled to the side following defeat to New Zealand.
It was a welcome day in the sun for a 29-year-old who has had to endure more than his fair share of dark times due to a litany of injury problems that could easily have ended his career.
Five different stress fractures in his back left him sidelined for long periods and denied him the chance to push for a place in the triumphant 2019 campaign, while his luck got even worse on the eve of last year’s T20 tournament in Australia.
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The 6ft 7in left-armer had been lined up to play a key role with the ball, only to trip on a boundary sponge during a fielding drill and rupture ligaments in his left ankle. When England went on to lift the trophy at a packed MCG, it was hard for him not to imagine his own hands on the silverware.
Now he has a real chance to control his own story. With his body holding up well and his game in good order, things are finally falling into place.
“When I came out here I certainly felt like there was some sort of unfinished business with World Cups,” he said.
“Last year it was certainly an opportunity missed, I was bowling really well in the lead-up and then sort of had the rug pulled out from under my feet.
“The last-minute injury was very disappointing, but I’ve been wrapped up in cotton wool this time and it’s nice to be here. Hopefully there are more contributions because I don’t feel like I’ve sort of scratched the surface with World Cups.
“Obviously being injured and not being able to do what you are good at, what you love, is awful. Watching others take your wickets or score your runs is another horrible thing.
“But you have to ask yourself what are the choices? Do you sit around and feel sorry for yourself or do you just have to crack on and get yourself back to full fitness?”
England’s circuitous route around India sees them playing in eight different cities across nine group games – with Ahmedabad and Dharamashala already in the rearview and Delhi up next for Sunday’s game against Afghanistan.
The constant cycle of internal flights and coach transfers means rotation has been discussed, especially among the fast bowling department, but Topley has already missed enough games for a lifetime and has no desire to sit out.
He described his omission in favour of spinner Moeen Ali against New Zealand as a “take your medicine” situation, but is willing to be a workhorse if required as the competition unfolds.
“There’s a lot of chat about the schedule. To be honest, it’s one game every five days, it seems,” he said.
“I mean, county cricketers do much worse. If we play for Surrey, we’d be more tired. It’s not really an excuse for us. Sevens games is 70 overs maximum.
“In our changing room, we’ve all played county cricket, which can be quite a torrid time. You have to play a lot more regularly than this seven weeks, so I think everyone in our team can handle it pretty well.”
Jamie George says England will call upon all their big-game experience to overcome Fiji in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final.
England have appeared in the last eight of the tournament in all but one of its editions – on home soil in 2015 – and reached the final four years ago when they lost 32-12 to South Africa in Yokohama.
Of that matchday 23, there are 15 survivors currently in Steve Borthwick’s squad who are continuing preparations for the Stade Velodrome showdown.
Fiji, meanwhile, are appearing in the knockout phase for only the third time and their first since 2007, placing a question mark over their ability to deliver when the pressure is on.
“We can’t shy away from the fact this is probably one of the biggest games we are ever going to play in,” Saracens hooker George said.
“We’ve got a lot of players who have been there and done that on some big stages. We’ve got players who have experience of a World Cup final and the latter stages of World Cups and some players who are playing in their fourth World Cup.
“We’ve got a great group of senior players who are very open and honest with the younger players who this could be intimidating for.
“But this is why we’re here. We want to play on the biggest stage, the quarter-final of a World Cup is exactly where we want to be. Next week want we to be in the semi-final and so on.
“These are exciting times and the more experienced players need to draw on their experiences and make sure everyone is in the right spirit going into the weekend.”
Simon Raiwalui’s men are regarded as the most complete Fiji team to have emerged from a nation of 925,000, even if their group campaign ended with a seismic upset by Portugal.
They have become less reliant on their historical strengths such as outrageous running skills and athletic offloads to become a force at the breakdown and the scrum.
Their line-out remains a recurring weakness, however, and this vulnerability will be targeted relentlessly by England with head coach Steve Borthwick and consultant coach George Kruis plotting their downfall.
“Fiji’s set piece as a whole has got better. Portugal targeted their line-out in particular and that was very interesting, particularly in how they went about it,” George said.
“We’ve got some complete line-out pigs in our team. George Kruis coming in, who is a complete nause and obviously Steve Borthwick – his father! – doing a lot.
“Their conversations together are not necessarily fascinating, but they are going to be coming up with a very good plan.
“We trust in that plan and we are going to try and put Fiji under a huge amount of pressure in that area. We trust the line-out pigs to be coming up with a good plan.”
Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham has raised the prospect of the game’s lawmakers examining whether audio between referees and VARs should be available live.
Miscommunication between VAR Darren England and referee Simon Hooper led to a Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool at Tottenham being wrongly disallowed last month, leading to further calls for such conversations to be played out in real time.
The incident caused huge controversy, with Reds manager Jurgen Klopp even calling for the match to be replayed.
Broadcasting the conversations between on-field officials and VARs live is currently prohibited under football’s laws.
Bullingham, who is a director at the International Football Association Board (IFAB) which has the power to change the game’s laws, said the organisation had discussed the subject but added: “Generally there is a split in the room over that, and quite often it is between the marketing and commercial people and the referees.
“Our point of view, from the marketing and commercial perspective, would normally be that transparency is a really good thing, and we want fans to have the maximum experience.”
Bullingham said an ongoing FIFA trial where referees announce and explain the outcome of an on-field review is a “step in the right direction” but added: “My personal point of view is I do think (live audio) will continue to be a question over time, because the greater transparency shows how difficult the referee’s job is, and it has worked in other sport.
“There is an understandable nervousness from others that the referee’s job is hard enough as it is. In a tournament you have referees with multiple languages, so it is not as straightforward as some might suggest.
“So I think we are taking a step in the right direction with announcing the decision and explaining why it has been reached. Let’s see if that leads to further progression.”
Bullingham’s Irish FA counterpart and fellow IFAB director Patrick Nelson spoke more cautiously on the VAR decision-making process, adding: “We just need to see more evidence on this at the moment.
“It’s interesting when we look at recent examples but we still need to remember that VAR as an entire concept is relatively in its infancy compared to the game of football and compared to IFAB. There is still more that we can learn.”
The PA news agency understands the IFAB is set to open up the trial of in-stadium announcements by referees beyond FIFA events to other interested competitions.
The IFAB may also look again at the wording of Principle 10 in the VAR protocol, which currently prevents VARs from revisiting a decision once play has restarted and meant the officials could not call play back after the Diaz error.
It could be updated to allow a decision to be revisited where a clear mistake has occurred, and where no significant action has taken place since play restarted.
Bullingham also said he was aware IFAB had been asked to consider widening the scope of VAR to rule on decisions such as corner kick and free-kick awards.
“I think we would be really reluctant to have a game that was stopped a lot more than it currently is, but that will be a proper discussion,” he added.
VAR interventions are currently limited to goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity.
Sam Curran had no qualms about surrendering new-ball duties to Reece Topley after watching his Surrey team-mate deliver the goods in England’s World Cup win over Bangladesh.
Curran opened the bowling alongside Chris Woakes in the opening-day defeat by New Zealand, and took a wicket with his very first ball as Will Young nicked an inswinger down leg.
But Topley was recalled to bolster the attack for Tuesday’s clash in Dharamshala and the 6ft 7in left-armer was in wonderful form, taking out Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto with consecutive deliveries in his first over and then bowling the dangerous Shakib Al Hasan with a beauty that crept past the outside edge and hit off stump.
Those early breakthroughs knocked the stuffing out of the chase before it had really begun as Topley finished with figures of four for 43 in a heavy 137-run victory.
Curran was on hand at the death to claim the final wicket of the match and had nothing but praise for the man who replaced him at the top of the innings.
“Of course I would like the new ball, but what I like doing for the team is adapting and I thought Reece bowled amazingly,” he said.
“To get two in two and three in the powerplay really set Bangladesh back quickly. It was pretty amazing for him to come back into the side and do that. It got the boys buzzing in the field and the margin we won by was important to get back on track with our net run-rate as well.
“Reece is very tall and, being a left-armer, it’s very nice to use different angles on the crease. The way he started was amazing.”
Curran also saluted the efforts of Dawid Malan, who helped himself to 140 in just 107 deliveries to power England to a winning score of 364 for nine.
Malan edged ahead of 2019 World Cup winner Jason Roy in the pecking order just before the squad was announced and made good on his promotion with a fourth century in the last nine innings.
“He’s fairly quiet, but he does all his talking with the bat to be fair,” said Curran.
“He’s played really consistent cricket for a long time now, he missed out in the first game but he’s showed his class now. A big hundred is what we needed.
“The batters came out the blocks pretty well and we’ve got ourselves into the tournament with a first win now. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
England are swapping the Himalayan mountain air of Dharamshala for the hustle and bustle of Delhi next, with a game against Afghanistan to follow on Sunday.
England suffered their first qualifying defeat in a decade on this day in 2019 as they slipped to a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Czech Republic in Prague.
Gareth Southgate’s men went into the game knowing victory would put them through to Euro 2020 with three matches to spare, and many thought it would be done with ease given the 5-0 thrashing England inflicted on the Czechs at Wembley a few months prior.
More of the same seemed on the cards when Harry Kane slotted home a fifth-minute penalty to put England in the driving seat.
However, the lead lasted just four minutes before the hosts drew level when Jakub Brabec bundled home a corner, and from then on, the Czechs played with increasing confidence as they chased victory at the Sinobo Stadium.
England failed to make any impression in the second period and a Czech winner would arrive in the 85th minute when they capitalised on over-elaborate play at the back from the visitors.
Jordan Pickford’s pass was pounced on by Lukas Masopust who scurried down the right before cutting back to substitute Zdenek Ondrasek who swept home the winner.
The result ended England’s 43-match unbeaten run in Euro and World Cup qualifying matches stretching back to a 1-0 loss in Ukraine in October 2009 and was a result that Southgate’s stuttering side very much deserved.
“Clearly that’s not a night that we wanted to be a part of in terms of that record,” Southgate said.
“We didn’t play well enough, simple as that. We conceded possession of the ball too cheaply.
“Particularly in the first half we didn’t create enough chances. Second half we had some good chances that we didn’t take and throughout the night we were too open out of possession.
“Some of that was because of giving the ball away. So we gave the Czechs, who played well, got to give them credit, we gave them too many opportunities to score.”
England bounced back from the defeat in impressive fashion, winning their final three qualifiers emphatically – beating Bulgaria 6-0, Montenegro 7-0 and Kosovo 4-0 – to finish six points clear at the second-placed Czechs at the top of Group A with seven wins out of eight.
That sealed their place at Euro 2020 – a tournament delayed until 2021 – where England would finish runners-up after losing to Italy on penalties in the final at Wembley.
Under-fire Harry Maguire has revealed former England captain David Beckham got in touch with him after last month’s Hampden Park hounding to help offer support and advice.
Just over two years after being a Manchester United ever-present and part of the European Championship team of the tournament, the 30-year-old defender now finds himself as the butt of jokes.
Many opposing fans have revelled in Maguire’s drop off and Scotland supporters goaded him mercilessly after coming on and scoring an own goal in England’s 3-1 win last month.
Maguire immediately laughed it off as a “little bit of banter” but hearing from somebody that knows a thing or two about intense criticism meant the world to him.
Few have faced sharper focus in an England shirt than Beckham, who has laid bare the pain he suffered after his 1998 World Cup red card against Argentina in a new Netflix documentary.
“I actually spoke with David about three weeks ago, after the Scotland game,” Maguire said.
“He got in touch with me, so it was really nice of him and I really appreciated that. It meant everything. I’ve spoken throughout my career about David Beckham being someone I looked up to and watched when I was a young boy.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t end up on the right wing scoring and assisting as many goals as he has. But he was a big role model when I was growing up.
“It shows how classy he is to reach out to me and to message me. It was something I really appreciated. It was touching really.”
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Maguire did not want to divulge too much about their conversation but said the “main thing” Beckham did was to remind him of his career to date and the big moments he has enjoyed.
“I think when you’re going through tough moments you’ve got to go through past experiences and past memories and where you’ve gone in your career and what you’ve been through,” he said at St George’s Park.
“Every career is so up and down, especially when you reach what I’ve reached, in terms of being the captain of the biggest club in the world for three and a half years. He’s been in that position and knows what it’s like.
“Obviously having watched the documentary I couldn’t believe how much he went through at the time. In the documentary Gary Neville speaks about how resilient he is as a person. I think he’s been a huge role model for many footballers growing up, especially in my era.”
That chat and his experiences have helped Maguire retain belief and confidence, as has the continued faith shown in him by Gareth Southgate.
The England boss has been in charge for all 59 of his caps and snapped in Glasgow at treatment he said was “ridiculous”, “a joke” and “beyond anything I’ve ever seen”.
“I try and stay away from it all,” Maguire said when Southgate’s comments were put to him.
“Obviously you can’t stay away from it as your family and friends are probably seeing things, they probably read a lot more than I do.
“Yeah, there has been a lot of talk about me over the last year. For that talk to happen, you have got to have built your way up to be a top performer like I’ve done over the previous five years to that.
“Things haven’t gone to plan over the last year or so, but I am sure it will get back on track. A career is a long path. Many ups, many downs, it probably has been a little blip and I am trying to be back to where I was.”
Maguire knows he needs to repay Southgate’s faith by playing more minutes with Euro 2024 looming large and says he can continue to “block” out any abuse.
But he knows that is “a bit tougher” for his loved ones and his mother Zoe last month criticised the “disgraceful” abuse her son has been subjected to, which she claimed went far beyond football.
“It probably affects my family and friends more than it affects myself, especially when I am playing in a game,” Maguire said.
“I have had so many great nights and have so many great memories playing for my country and playing for my club as well. You play football to create memories – not just for myself but for my family and my friends.
“Obviously, the last year has been a little bit difficult for them to enjoy the games as they did in the previous eight or nine years of my career. I’m sure that will change. I’ll keep working hard and keep fighting for my place and keep trying to put things right.”
Dawid Malan vowed to “keep silencing people” after his century helped England get back to winning ways at the World Cup with a convincing display against Bangladesh.
Now 36, Malan has had to scrap hard for every opportunity he has had in international cricket and only inked his name into the World Cup side a matter of days before jetting out to India.
As recently as last month he was viewed as a versatile reserve batter for the tournament rather than a starter, but Jason Roy’s untimely battle with back spasms and Malan’s own player-of-the-series showing against New Zealand finally saw him nail down a spot at opener.
A false start in the tournament curtain-raiser against New Zealand put the pressure on England as defending champions, but for someone who has felt his credentials being placed under the microscope regularly Malan was well placed to stand up and be counted in Dharamshala.
He put on 115 with Jonny Bairstow (52) and 151 with Joe Root (82) on his way to 140 from 107 deliveries, three more than the final winning margin as the Tigers failed to live with a target of 365.
It was his sixth hundred in just 23 ODI appearances – the same number Sir Andrew Strauss managed in 127 caps and the explosive Alex Hales in 70 – but he still feels motivated by the struggles he has faced to find a place with England.
“I’m just hungry, hungry to play, to play well, hungry to score runs and win games of cricket,” he said.
“I’ve wanted to be part of this team for so long and it’s been impossible to break into with players that have been so good. I’m desperate to do well in this format and prove a point that I deserve to be in there.
“I feel like every series I’m under pressure. For me to keep silencing people is all I can do. If I can score as many runs as I can and help contribute to wins hopefully eventually people’s opinions might change.
“To be able to score a hundred and say that I’ve been able to score a hundred in a World Cup game for England is fantastic.”
Malan is, in many ways, an unlikely magnet for critics given his outstanding 50-over record. He boasts an average of 63.15 and a strike rate of 98.44, with exactly 1,200 runs on the board, but he is all too aware of those who remain sceptical about his ability to accelerate.
“There’s been a lot of strange narratives around over the last couple of years,” he said.
“But the majority of my cricket for England has been T20 cricket and I’ve always said, I can play it like a T20 game if you want me to. Just ask me to do what you need me to do and I’ll do it.”
Ahead of the game England had expressed concerns over the state of the outfield at the HPCA Stadium, with the loose, sandy soil composition making for uncertain conditions underfoot.
But the scale of their victory meant they were not forced to take any undue risks in the field and were able to bank the points without any scares.
“It was pretty bad. We’re pretty happy to get through that game without any injuries – both teams, I think,” said all-rounder Sam Curran.
“We don’t have to come back here. But hopefully the outfield does get better: it’s not very nice, what’s happened to it. But I thought the wicket was really good.
“Luckily, there weren’t too many balls we had to sprint after, we’re just pretty happy that no-one’s injured coming into the next game.”
Jarrod Bowen feels like he has returned to the England set-up in the form of his life as the West Ham forward prepares to fulfil a childhood dream of playing at Wembley.
Having come through at Hereford and flourished at Hull, the 26-year-old is well on the way to club great status at the London Stadium.
Bowen fired the Hammers to Europa Conference League glory in June’s unforgettable final against Fiorentina and has shone in the early stages of this season, scoring five in nine appearances.
That form helped the forward to earn his first England call-up since September 2022, shortly before signing a new deal until 2030 at the London Stadium.
“A really special week,” Bowen said. “Obviously got the call on Thursday before our European game so had that. Won that game out there, which was nice.
“Then the new deal was sorted over the weekend, so a really special four days.
“I’ve always wanted to be back so to get the opportunity to be selected again is something I’m really grateful for.”
Bowen’s four England appearances to date came during the worst international camp of Gareth Southgate’s largely successful reign.
The 26-year-old featured in all four Nations League matches in June 2022, starting the 1-0 away loss to Hungary and 4-0 Molineux mauling against the same opposition.
Bowen remained in the squad that September but did not play, and his return did not come until this month’s double-header against Australia and Italy.
“The way I started this season I’m probably playing the best football that I’ve played in my career,” Bowen said.
“I’ve had those experiences of Europe. It’s a bit different to when I came (before).
“I’m a dad now, so I’m in a different kind of place, you just feel a bit more mature. I feel in a really good place and to be back here, I’m really grateful for it.”
Southgate has indicated Bowen will play in Friday’s Wembley friendly against Australia, allowing him to fulfil his ambition of stepping out under the arch.
“That would be the ultimate,” he said. “I have got four caps and I am massively grateful for them but that Wembley one…
“As a little boy you dream of playing for your country and you never think it is going to happen but now I am here I want to play at Wembley and hopefully I get the opportunity to do so.”
Bowen got the nod in a highly competitive area of the squad, with 82-cap forward Raheem Sterling among those to miss out.
Little wonder, then, that he is determined to make the most out this chance to earn a spot at next summer’s Euros, especially after the disappointment of watching the World Cup in Qatar from afar.
Asked if missing out on the squad motivates him for Germany next summer, Bowen said: “Yeah, but I think you’ve also got to look at the squad that’s here as well.
“Just being named in the squad was an honour for me. To play the games I played and to be named in another squad before the World Cup was, again, another honour.
“I was disappointed to miss out but I had to deal with it and all I could do is keep playing football to a level that I know that I can play at and everything will take care of itself.”
An outstanding century from Dawid Malan and Reece Topley’s eye-catching return put England’s World Cup defence back on track as they hammered Bangladesh by 137 runs in Dharamshala.
The 2019 champions were bruised by a thumping loss to New Zealand in the tournament opener but banked a handsome win of their own to cap their visit to the outer ranges of the Himalayas.
Malan was the architect, rolling out a career-best 140 in 107 balls as he carried England to 364 for nine with a fourth century in his last nine innings.
At one stage they would have backed themselves to post 400, but a flurry of wickets at the back end kept them to a less flashy figure.
It was still their biggest World Cup total on foreign soil and easily enough to get the job done against outmatched opponents who were railroaded by Topley on his recall to the starting XI.
England bolstered their pace attack by swapping out spin-bowling all-rounder Moeen Ali for the 6ft 7in left-armer and it proved an inspired decision as Topley blew away the Bangladesh top order and finished with four for 43.
He took two in two balls in his opening over, clean bowled captain Shakib Al Hasan with a wonderful ball and circled back for the battling Mushfiqur Rahim.
He was the pick of the pack throughout and will take some budging from the teamsheet now.
Bangladesh lost their way entirely with the bat, ambling aimlessly to 227 all out and helping repair much of the previous damage to England’s net run-rate.
Malan was only inked into the starting XI last month, embarking on a compelling run of late summer form just as the selectors were losing faith in the form and fitness of Jason Roy.
A lethargic start against the Black Caps in Ahmedabad did not show him at his best, but the 36-year-old removed any doubt about his readiness with a wonderfully-paced knock.
His first 50 runs came in a hurry, taking just 39 balls, and, after taking 52 more to convert his half-century, he showed off some extra gears by slamming 40 off his last 16 deliveries.
Malan’s ambitious streak was evident from the outset, with two glorious sixes off Mustafizur Rahman the highlight of England’s 61-run powerplay.
The first saw him stoop low enough to engineer a slog-sweep over deep square, a shot requiring equal parts bravery and timing, and the second saw him stand tall and pull hard.
When Bangladesh retreated to spin he took a different method, rarely allowing himself to go aerial, threading his shots into gaps and pulling out a reverse sweep against the steadying hand of Shakib.
He took the lion’s share of a 115-run partnership with Jonny Bairstow (52), who had earlier joined England’s 100-cap club after a presentation from former captain Eoin Morgan and was looking solid until Shakib snuck one into his leg stump.
Malan also outscored Joe Root in the decisive third-wicket stand of 151 that kept England ticking for almost 20 overs.
Root, who emerged alone in credit against the Black Caps thanks to a well-made 77, was calm and controlled again, cutting loose only briefly to reverse ramp Mustafizur for six.
In reaching 82 he moved past Graham Gooch as England’s leading run-scorer in World Cup cricket, easing past his mark of 897.
When Malan departed in the 38th over, after unloading a torrent against Mehedi Hasan, he had left the power-hitters in the middle order a perfect platform of 266 for two.
To score 98 more for the loss of seven wickets was an underachievement, down in no small part to Sofiul Islam, who removed Jos Buttler, Root and Liam Livingstone in the space of nine deliveries.
Despite that, they already had more than enough, with Topley’s new ball showing settling the issue.
Having watched from the sidelines as England took a single wicket last time out, he doubled that tally in his first over.
His fourth delivery swung enough to take Tanzid Hasan’s outside edge and carried to second slip and his second left Najmul Shanto as he sprayed to backward point.
Shakib survived despite misreading the hat-trick ball but was soon undone by something even better, beaten on the outside edge by one that held its line and clipped the top of off.
When Chris Woakes nicked off Mehidy Hasan Miraz it was hard to see a way back from 49 for four and they never really attempted to tackle the spiralling required rate.
Liton Das (76) and Mushfiqur (51) made England work before Woakes and Topley returned to add to their hauls, but the sense of any danger had long disappeared.
Livingstone countered his first-ball dismissal with the bat by producing a first-ball wicket of his own and Adil Rashid opened his account in his 16th over of the tournament.
Bangladesh’s passivity saw them survive almost until the end, but Mark Wood and Sam Curran hit the stumps late on to wrap things up.
Dawid Malan’s superb century did the hard work for England as they racked up 364 for nine against Bangladesh in Dharamshala, a game they hope can kickstart their World Cup defence after a sticky start.
Malan reeled off a perfectly paced 140 in 107 balls at the top of the order, a career-best knock from a man who only inked his name in the first-choice XI a matter of days before the squad was finalised, to give his side their highest ever World Cup total away from home.
The 36-year-old, frequently an afterthought in England’s white-ball revolution but now a leading man in his own right, shared stands of 115 and 151 with Jonny Bairstow (52) and Joe Root (82) as the reigning champions recovered some of their swagger following a nine-wicket thrashing by New Zealand in the tournament opener.
At one stage, with a power-packed middle order queuing up in the dugout, they looked ready to shoot for 400 but their over-exuberance allowed Bangladesh to find a way back in the closing stages.
England lost five for 27 at one stage, but still walked away with a new record total at the HPCA Stadium, with Malan overtaking Indian superstar Virat Kohli’s 127 as the biggest individual score at the ground.
He paced his run perfectly, scoring his first fifty off 39 balls in the powerplay, taking 53 more to convert his half-century and then smashing 40 off his last 16 as he cut loose. With 16 fours and five sixes, it was an eloquent response to critics who worry about his ability as an aggressor.
For Bairstow there was a fifty to mark his 100th ODI cap, handed over in person by his former captain Eoin Morgan in the team huddle, while Root made his second telling contribution in as many games.
He was alone in emerging in credit from the thrashing in Ahmedabad, making a measured 77, and here moved past Graham Gooch’s mark of 897 runs in World Cup cricket.
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