The All Whites say they’re embracing the challenge posed by 2026 FIFA World Cup contenders England, in tomorrow’s last hit out before the tournament.

New Zealand will play England for the first time in more than three decades at 8am Sunday NZT at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, home to NFL side the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

England, ranked fourth in the world, start their pre-FIFA World Cup campaign against New Zealand tomorrow.

All Whites coach Darren Bazeley says the friendly presents a tough challenge but also an opportunity to prepare for New Zealand’s return to the biggest stage in football.

“They're obviously a very good team, lots of good players, ranked four in the world.  One of the favourites for the tournament, it's going to be a tough challenge.

“It's not one we're scared of, I think it's a great opportunity, especially coming off the back of our last game.

“It's a great opportunity for the players to go and show that the Premier League is where obviously Woodsy plays, but where the players all aspire to be and this is an opportunity for them to test themselves against those players.”

All Whites captain Chris Wood says he wants to see a change in mentality from his teammates after the 4-0 defeat to Haiti earlier this week.

“We went in there as I say, just playing a friendly.

“It was a bit lacklustre but not fully all our own of live and die with it, with what the first game against Iran will be and I think we need to bring more of that tomorrow and just be there to compete with them first and foremost before being able to play and being able to get on the ball and do that side of it.”

Wood says he wants his teammates to embrace the occasion against England.

“Take on the challenge.

“England are human beings at the end of the day, they can make mistakes, and they will make mistakes in the game. Capitalise on them.

“Nobody's perfect in their team, but they're very darn good. Just make sure you're diligent, playing at the highest level you can personally play and exploiting the few weaknesses that they potentially could have.”

Darren Bazeley says he’s demanding a more clinical performance from his players after the Haiti loss.

“We need to perform, we need to be better than we were the other day. We need to show certain things within our defensive set-up, around being more compact and more solid.

“Can we create chances? The other day against Haiti we created 12 goalscoring chances, pretty good chances. We didn't take any of them, (13:50) which was disappointing.

“This is a game that's going to be a different game.  We know that England are going to have probably more possession, but can we still create chances to score goals? 

“In those moments, have we got the players that are capable of taking that moment and having a moment on the world stage?”

The friendly between the All Whites and England will be available live and free on TVNZ+, kicking off at 8am NZT tomorrow morning.

New Zealand will relocate to their San Diego base camp following the England friendly, as they continue preparations for their opening Group G match against IR Iran on 16 June.

Article added: Saturday 06 June 2026