With the Premier League on pause, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were in action for their international qualifiers. Harry Kane scored his 74th goal for the national side as England beat Serbia 5-0 in Belgrade. Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa and Marcus Rashford also got on the scoresheet for the Three Lions as they cruised to a win in a match that had been delayed by an hour due to weather.
England are now second in the world rankings after a comfortable victory and will hope to continue their good form in 2023 when they take on the Republic of Ireland in Dublin. Wales and Northern Ireland both face important group games, while Scotland play the Netherlands in Glasgow as they look to get back into a top-four position in their group.
The race for qualification for the 2018 World Cup is getting to the final straight with just two rounds left before we know which teams will make it to Russia. In a change from previous tournaments, the host confederation (in this case Concacaf) gets one automatic spot and the best nation in the final FIFA World Ranking qualifies directly for the inter-confederation playoffs.
The remaining six places will be won through the normal qualification process with the top five nations in each of the six confederations earning spots and the best three runners-up progressing to a single-match inter-confederation play-off for the other two spots. The play-off will include two teams from the North America region, one team each from Oceania, Africa and Asia, plus none of the teams from Europe.