Opta facts: England v Albania

The Three Lions play their final home game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, when they host Albania in front of a sold-out Wembley Stadium.

Gareth Southgate's men know they need four points from their final two games in November to secure their spot at the World Cup Finals in Qatar next winter.

And ahead of their final home game of 2021, hear are some of the key facts and stats courtesy of Opta around the fixture...

● England have won all five of their matches against Albania, scoring 14 goals and conceding just once, winning 2-0 earlier this World Cup campaign in Tirana.

● Albania are yet to score a goal on English soil against England, losing 5-0 at Wembley in April 1989 and going down 2-0 in September 2001 at St James’ Park in Newcastle.

● Eight of England’s last ten goals against Albania have been scored in the second half, with Harry Kane’s 38th minute strike in March and Michael Owen’s goal in the 44th minute in September 2001 the only exceptions in this run.

 

● England, who have won their opening five games against Albania, have won their first six games in all competitions against six different teams previously (Ireland, France, Finland, Luxembourg, San Marino, Andorra).

● England have never fallen behind in their five games against Albania, only facing Turkey (eleven times), Andorra and Colombia (six times each) more often without trailing for a single minute in their international history.

 

● England are unbeaten in their last 18 matches in all competitions, their best unbeaten run since going 19 in a row without defeat between November 1965 and November 1966.

 

● Albania have won three of their four away 2022 World Cup qualifiers (L1) – in their previous 12 World Cup qualifying campaigns, they only won four away matches (P52 W4 D7 L41).

 

● This will be Gareth Southgate’s 67th match in charge of England, the joint-most of any England manager since Sir Bobby Robson left in 1990, equalling Sven-Goran Eriksson’s tally between 2001 and 2006. Southgate has already won more games (42) than Eriksson (40), with only Sam Allardyce (100 per cent, from one game) and Fabio Capello (67 per cent) having a better win ratio for England than Southgate (64 per cent).

 

● In England’s last match against Hungary, five players from Manchester City (Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker) were in the starting XI, the most from one team for a match since June 2016 vs Iceland, when five Spurs players were in the XI. John Stones’ goal was the 22nd by a City player under Gareth Southgate, with only Spurs players scoring more under Southgate (41).

 

● Albanian substitutes have been directly involved in ten goals in 2022 World Cup qualifying (four goals, six assists), the third-most of any country behind Poland (16) and the Netherlands (11). Armando Broja – who plays his club football in England on loan at Southampton from Chelsea – has been responsible for five of those (three goals, two assists) while his team-mate Odise Roshi has the most assists from the bench (three).