England’s first opponents in qualifying are the Czech Republic who visit Wembley this coming Friday.
European Championship winners in 1976 (as Czechoslovakia), when Antonin Panenka gave his name to a penalty chipped down the middle of the goal, the Czech Republic reached the final of Euro 96 after more tournament memories were made by Karel Poborsky’s lob over the stranded Portugal goalkeeper.
The Euros has been a competition the Czech’s have qualified regularly for, reaching the semi-finals in 2004 and the quarters in 2012.
In the Nations League recently they defeated neighbours Slovakia twice but missed out on promotion to Group A as they lost twice against Ukraine.
Their last three Nations League matches were overseen by new coach Jaroslav Silhavy who took over from Karel Jarolim, sacked after the first Ukraine defeat was followed by a heavy loss in a friendly against Russia.
It is over 10 years since the last meeting of the two sides which took place at Wembley in August 2008 and saw Joe Cole rescue a 2-2 friendly draw for the hosts with a late goal.
The Czech squad for Friday's game is largely drawn from domestic and German football with a sprinkling of Serie A talent as well, including AS Roma forward Patrik Schik.
Coach Silhavy has named seven players from Europa League surprise package Slavia Prague who are due to meet Chelsea in the next round of that competition.
The latest news from the England camp is that Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi's first Under-21 call-up has been upgraded to a senior squad place after the withdrawal of Luke Shaw, John Stones, Fabian Delph and Ruben Loftus-Cheek from Gareth Southgate's original squad.
Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse has also been called up.