England Face DR Congo in the Last 32 — Here’s How UK Fans Can Watch Every Remaining Match for Free

The Three Lions topped Group L unbeaten and open the knockouts against DR Congo in Atlanta today — here’s how to catch every free-to-air match on BBC and ITV, wherever you are.

England secured top spot in Group L without losing a match, beating Croatia 4-2, drawing 0-0 with Ghana, and closing out the group with a 2-0 win over Panama. That result set up a Round of 32 meeting with DR Congo, the third-placed side from Group K, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Wednesday. Opta’s supercomputer gives England a 73.9% chance of winning the match in normal time, with DR Congo rated at just 11.3%.

Whether you’re at home or abroad, here’s exactly how to watch BBC and ITV’s coverage from anywhere.

HOW TO WATCH

Every one of the tournament’s 104 matches — including today’s Round of 32 games — is being shown free-to-air in the UK, split between the BBC (54 games) and ITV (51 games). Today’s England match airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and it costs nothing beyond a valid UK TV licence, which is required to watch or stream any live broadcast. The catch: both BBC iPlayer and ITVX check your device’s IP address, and if it doesn’t look like it’s coming from inside the UK, they block the stream — the same restriction UK nationals run into the moment they travel abroad, since the broadcast rights are licensed for domestic viewing only.

TurisVPN gets around that by routing your connection through a server in the UK, so iPlayer and ITVX see a British IP address regardless of where you actually are. Download the app for iOS (15.0+), Android (5.0+), or as a Chrome extension, then connect to the UK server before opening iPlayer or ITVX. Worth noting: TurisVPN’s free tier only unlocks your home country’s servers plus the US, so travellers wanting the UK server from abroad will need the Premium plan ($3.99/month, or $2.99/month billed annually). Once connected, sign in with your BBC or ITV account as normal and stream the match live.

FACT BOX

Watching from outside the UK?

If you’re a UK expat or traveller abroad this summer, TurisVPN gets you back onto BBC iPlayer and ITVX in seconds — connect to a UK server and watch every remaining match exactly as you would at home, with turisvpn.com