Spain host England as Nations League group stage comes to an end

Spain and England clash tonight to decide who claims top spot as the Nations League group stage reaches its final round. Spain host England at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano in the sixth and final round of Group 3 in the competition’s top tier. Both teams have already booked their places in the quarterfinals, so tonight’s match is a direct fight for first place in the group.

The world champions arrive with a perfect record of five victories in five games, built on a world-record run of 43 matches unbeaten. England, under coach Thomas Tuchel, come in buoyant after four straight victories that put them second in the group. Kickoff is at 9:45pm on beIN Sports 1.

Other Nations League fixtures on our radar tonight:

• Montenegro vs. Cyprus — 4pm, beIN Sports 2;
• Armenia vs. Latvia — 4pm, beIN Sports 3;
• Belarus vs. Albania — 7pm, beIN Sports 2;
• Finland vs. San Marino — 7pm, beIN Sports 3;
• Czechia vs. Croatia — 9:45pm, beIN Sports 4;
• France vs. Turkey — 9:45pm, beIN Sports 2;
• Italy vs. Belgium — 9:45pm, beIN Sports 3.

ICYMI-

Egypt secured a major 5-0 victory over Malawi at Cairo International Stadium on Friday in the qualifiers for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, an evening when Mohamed Salah stole the spotlight. The 34-year-old scored two goals in the final minutes, the first with a far-post header in the 84th minute and the second a Panenka-style penalty in stoppage time. Egypt had opened the scoring within the first 10 minutes through Nasser Maher and Omar Marmoush, before Mohamed Hany added the third ahead of the end of the first half. The fixture marked new coach Ali Maher’s first game in charge. The victory lifted Egypt to 7 points at the top of Group B, level with Angola.

The all-time scorer debate: After Salah scored the two goals, his international tally rose to 70, but FIFA later revised the figure to 68, which leaves him one goal short of Hossam Hassan’s total. Either way, Salah still has a chance to make up the difference and take sole lead of the scoring charts in the return leg against Malawi in Lilongwe next Tuesday.

In the Nations League, Portugal’s post-Ronaldo era got off to a shaky start, as they suffered a 4-1 home defeat to Denmark on Saturday, their heaviest-ever loss on home soil in an official match.