World Cup 2026 qualifying results today March 22: England easily beat Albania

This morning (March 22), England will host Albania at home in the opening match of Group K of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe. This is also the first match of coach Thomas Tuchel as captain of the Three Lions.

With home advantage and a better squad, England entered the game confidently and put considerable pressure on Albania. After several attacks, the Three Lions opened the scoring in the 19th minute thanks to Lewis Skelly. The assist for Lewis Skelly was Bellingham.

Lewis Skelly scored the opening goal of the match (Photo: Reuters).

After falling behind to England, Albania played very hard. The visitors created a number of notable chances, most notably a shot that hit the crossbar in the 27th minute, almost forcing Pickford to pick the ball out of the net. The first half ended 1-0 in favor of England.

In the second half, Albania tried to push up their formation to find an equalizer, but their attacks were not sharp enough to penetrate the opponent's defense. On the Three Lions side, despite dominating the ball and making many passes, they still had trouble finding a second goal.

Harry Kane sealed a 2-0 victory for the Three Lions (Photo: Reuters).

In a deadlocked match, Harry Kane shone to bring the second goal for the Three Lions. Starting from a pass from Declan Rice, the Bayern Munich striker took a neat first step and then unleashed a tricky shot, defeating the Albanian goalkeeper to raise the score to 2-0.

In the remaining time, England was still the better team, controlling the ball more, but did not score any more goals. In the end, England won 2-0 against Albania, having a favorable start in the 2026 World Cup qualifying round in Europe.