Internationals: World Cup warm

Reece James and Pedro Neto helped England and Portugal continue their preparations for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup with morale-boosting friendly wins on Saturday.

With the start of the World Cup less than a week away, the teams set to compete at the tournament are well into their preparations by now.

England have already relocated to their base in the USA and took on New Zealand in Tampa, Florida in a match head coach Thomas Tuchel used to give as many players minutes as possible, changing his entire line-up at half-time.

James was one of the 11 players to come on during the break, replacing Jarell Quansah at right-back in the Three Lions’ line-up for the second half.

England had taken the lead shortly before those changes, when captain Harry Kane headed in from Djed Spence’s cross to make it 1-0 in first-half stoppage time. In searing Florida heat and with both teams aware of the more important matches coming up soon when the World Cup begins, a subdued second period saw no further scoring.

Subdued is not a word you would use to describe Portugal's World Cup warm-up friendly meeting with Chile in Lisbon earlier in the evening.

By the time Neto was introduced as a half-time substitute, the score was still goalless – although Rafael Leao had hit the post and Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal ruled out for offside – but both teams were down to 10 men after Leao and Ivan Roman were shown red cards, as punches were thrown in a flare-up shortly before the break.

Tempers had calmed for the second half and Portugal showed their strength to pull away into a two-goal lead, Bruno Fernandes’ defence-splitting pass teeing up Goncalo Guedes to open the scoring, before the Manchester United playmaker curled in the second himself.

Chile briefly threatened a come-back when they cut the deficit in added time, but it was too little too late and the Iberian side claimed a 2-1 victory on home soil before they make the trip across the Atlantic.

Elsewhere, earlier on Saturday, goalkeeper Mike Penders was an unused substitute when Belgium coasted to a 5-0 victory over 10-man Tunisia in Brussels.