England cruise to Greece win as Lee Carsley's Harry Kane snub pays off - 5 talking points

GREECE 0-3 ENGLAND: Three Lions prime up morale-boosting and much-needed triumph successful Athens arsenic Lee Carsley's bold starting up pays disconnected with skipper Harry Kane connected the bench

England took power of their Nations League destiny by producing their champion show nether Lee Carsley to bushed Greece successful Athens.

The Three Lions lost 2-1 to Greece astatine Wembley past period to surrender apical spot successful Group B2, but are present backmost connected apical and cognize that triumph implicit the Republic of Ireland connected Sunday volition seal their instrumentality to the elite level of the competition.

England fans had conscionable 7 minutes to get utilized to Harry Kane being connected the bench erstwhile Ollie Watkins punctured the communicative by turning location Noni Madueke's transverse from adjacent range. Jordan Pickford had to beryllium alert to prevention Kostas Tsimikas' almighty changeable astatine the adjacent station earlier Jude Bellingham spurned a promising opening.

The distant broadside maintained their dominance aft the break, dealing good with the raucous ambiance and lasers aimed astatine their faces, arsenic Rico Lewis forced an instinctive prevention from Odysseas Vlachodimos earlier Bellingham struck the station with a flicked header. Pickford made a superb prevention to contradict Fotis Ioannidis arsenic England stood steadfast nether immoderate pressure.

Pickford's interventions allowed England to spell 2-0 up connected the counter-attack erstwhile Bellingham's changeable cannoned disconnected the post, deed Vlachodimos and made it implicit the line. England's substitutes past made a quality arsenic Jarrod Bowen and Morgan Gibbs-White combined to acceptable up a stunning flick from debutant Curtis Jones to marque the points safe. Here are the talking points from Athens.

1. Watkins justifies Carsley call

Carsley's determination to commencement Watkins implicit Kane was a large 1 which could easy person backfired. "It was important to springiness Ollie Watkins an opportunity,” helium told ITV earlier kick-off. “To acquisition a nighttime similar this volition beryllium large for himself. This squad needs to effort and make leaders and 1 mode to bash that is springiness them opportunities."

But Watkins has proven himself to beryllium a bully alternate to England's grounds extremity scorer - astir fans don't request reminding astir his precocious extremity to down the Netherlands successful the semi-final of Euro 2024 - and helium didn't discarded clip successful showing his poacher instincts successful Athens.

In information the opener owed overmuch much to Jude Bellingham's imaginativeness to merchandise Madueke and the Chelsea winger's intelligent question and calmness to prime an unmarked Watkins retired connected the borderline of the six-yard box. The Aston Villa striker could hardly miss and helium present has six goals successful 19 England appearances, but it could've been 7 had helium not mislaid show of the shot portion moving wide conscionable earlier the half-time whistle.

2. Walker's leadership

With Kane connected the bench, the captain's armband went to Kyle Walker, who was by acold and a mode the astir experienced subordinate connected the tract for England. Interviewed earlier kick-off, Walker admitted helium was amazed by Kane being dropped and suggested that Jude Bellingham needed to measurement up successful his absence.

The Manchester City right-back was precise vocal connected the pitch, with 1 infinitesimal summing up his approach. After a dilatory start, Greece recovered their feet midway done the archetypal half, combining nicely down their left-hand side. Liverpool left-back Tsimikas received a walk connected an underlap and tested Pickford astatine his adjacent post.

The contiguous aftermath saw Walker crook and outcry astatine Madueke, who had failed to way Tsimikas backmost into his ain box. Pickford was seen organising the troops with his booming dependable earlier Walker was forced to chat to card-happy referee Daniel Siebert aft the England goalkeeper was booked for time-wasting aft conscionable 27 minutes.

3. Bellingham has his swagger back

After an absurdly bully debut run astatine Real Madrid past season, Bellingham has experienced a driblet disconnected successful show level successful 2024/25. His archetypal La Liga extremity of the play lone came connected the play against Osasuna and disapproval has been rife successful Spain, with Real fans hardly the astir patient.

Ian Wright made a bully constituent portion connected punditry work for ITV astatine half-time. He suggested that Watkins starting implicit Kane had benefited Bellingham, who is fixed much abstraction to exploit successful the No.10 presumption due to the fact that the Villa antheral looks to tally successful down and agelong the defence, whereas Kane likes to driblet into midfield and articulation the build-up.

Whether that was the crushed down his improved performance, oregon thing simpler, determination was nary uncertainty that Bellingham looked backmost adjacent his champion successful an England shirt. His trademark swagger was backmost arsenic helium drifted each implicit the transportation and linked play earlier forcing successful the 2nd goal, via a fortuitous ricochet.

4. Pickford stands up tall

The deficiency of big-game acquisition successful England's starting line-up was chiefly caused by the ample numbers of unavailable players, with Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Luke Shaw each absent. The beingness of Walker and Pickford was truthful peculiarly important - and the England goalkeeper had 1 of his amended nights for his country.

He was commanding astatine the backmost for England, doing everything you privation from your goalkeeper: redeeming shots, claiming crosses, sprinting retired to cleanable up information and shouting instructions to his team-mates. His prevention from Ioannidis erstwhile the crippled was successful the equilibrium successful the 2nd fractional was his champion infinitesimal - helium charged out, closed down the space and work the changeable perfectly to parry it wide.

5. Carsley's wide power

Carsley has made his emotion for the England under-21s occupation wide implicit the past fewer months, insisting helium would beryllium delighted to instrumentality to the relation aft the interim relation finishes. And careless of whether England implicit the occupation successful the Nations League against Ireland, the Three Lions beryllium him a lot, with his power evident connected Thursday night.

The erstwhile Birmingham midfielder intelligibly has favourite players - and galore of them were connected amusement successful Athens. Madueke, Marc Guehi, Anthony Gordon, Rico Lewis, Curtis Jones, Conor Gallagher, Morgan Rogers and Lewis Hall are each alumni of the under-21s and each showed they tin lend astatine this level.

Madueke was the stand-out performer aboriginal on, providing England's biggest menace down the right, but Jones was conscionable arsenic impressive, helping the distant broadside play done the property and capping his show with a fantastic improvised finish.

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