A reminder that while this match is not much more than glorified fixture administration, there’s some really meaningful Group C action going down in Leverkusen tonight. Italy need to avoid defeat against Ukraine to make it through to the finals, else it’s the play-offs for the reigning European champions, and as their absences from the last two World Cups illustrate, they’re not too clever at those. Rob Smyth, fresh from OBOing Uruguay v Brazil in the cricket – a joke for the cross-disciplinary World-Cup-final heads there - is all over that one.
Harry Kane drops to the bench and Rico Lewis debuts as Gareth Southgate makes six changes to the England starting XI from the 2-0 win over Malta. Ollie Watkins replaces Kane up front, while Kyle Walker comes in to stand in as captain. Jack Grealish, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka also start.
North Macedonia: Dimitrievski, Manev, Serafimov, Musliu, Dimoski, Bardhi, Atanasov, Alimi, Alioski, Miovski, Elmas.
Subs: Kostadinov, Askovski, Iljazovski, Elezi, Churlinov, Mitrovski, Milan Ristovski, Todoroski, Aleksovski, Daci, Ademi, Siskovski.
England: Pickford, Walker, Guehi, Maguire, Lewis, Alexander-Arnold, Rice, Saka, Foden, Grealish, Watkins.
Subs: Gallagher, Kane, Ramsdale, Phillips, Tomori, Rashford, Johnstone, Konsa, Palmer, Henderson.
Referee: Filip Glova (Slovakia).
England have already qualified for Euro 2024 as winners of Group C, and if they manage a draw tonight against a team they beat 7-0 five months ago, they’ll be guaranteed to be among the top seeds for the tournament draw. The jeopardy isn’t particularly high, then, so if you still need a reason to tune in, consider that tonight’s match surely can’t be worse than this …
Kick off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on.