England, who were relegated from the first to the second division following the results of the last Nations League, started in League B with a victory over Ireland.
The match at the Aviva Stadium had its own special intrigue due to the connections of some Englishmen with Ireland. England’s interim head coach Lee Carsley is a former Irish national team player. Midfielder Declan Rice and winger Jack Grealish once played for the Irish youth team. But both of them chose England, so they did not receive the warmest welcome in Dublin. There was one more fact that added spice to this game. Home coach Heimir Hallgrímsson (he survived – an Icelander coaches the British!) was the coach of the Icelandic national team that sensationally defeated the British 2:1 in the Euro 2016 playoffs.
Before kick-off, the home fans booed the English national anthem, and Grealish almost got into a touchline fight with West Bromwich midfielder Molumby early in the game. The episode continued with a corner from the home side, after which Molumby could have scored an early goal. The English side prepared poorly for the set-piece and failed to take advantage of the Irishman’s advantage, but he headed wide.
However, Hallgrimsson’s team did not last long. The English initially played the ball under pressure into their own goal and pressed the opponent. In this way they wanted to take advantage of the free space in the opponent’s half. Grealish has been given an interesting role in the 4-3-3, effectively serving as a central midfielder. But when he possessed it, he was essentially a free artist. The Colville-Gordon pair played on the left. The lobs thrown to the speedy Newcastle winger have become one of the weapons of the English national team.
Carsley’s team scored in the 11th minute. One of the passes went straight to Gordon, who broke through one-on-one, but just hit Liverpool goalkeeper Kelleher straight away. However, he picked up the ball himself and passed it to Kane in the middle of the box. The striker’s shot didn’t work, but Rice read the episode well: he ran and fired a great shot from a horse. After his goal, Declan made apologetic gestures to the fans and barely celebrated.
Sensing that they would be torn apart by speed, the Irish sat quite far back in defence in a 5-4-1 formation. The English had a big advantage in terms of possession and moved the ball well. At least they played more interestingly than under Southgate. Kane forgave the hosts a couple of times. At the end of the half-hour, Grealish also troubled his exes. Carsley’s team pulled off a beautiful combination of multiple moves! With two walls, clever openings. Grealish whipped a precise low shot into touch in the far corner after a pass from Rice. So he celebrated the goal in the appropriate manner.
At half-time, the Irish were five times less in shots on goal: 1:5. England won the first half by a knockout. They could also have been awarded a penalty after Kane fell in Kelleher’s penalty area.
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The Irish team, if we forget about the start of the match, did not look like a team that would go out to fight. The hosts were inferior in single combat and this should be their main weapon. They did not know what to do with the ball. Suffice it to say that at half-time the leader in contact statistics for the boys in green was goalkeeper Kelleher. Either they were burned out or they simply did not understand what the Icelandic coach was demanding of them. In the second half the game continued as before. The English were in no hurry and calmly controlled the course of the match. But at some point they began to lose concentration and did not run enough, then the Irish began to reach Pickford’s area.
Suddenly, football became more chaotic. First of all, because of the actions of the English national team, which lost connections between the lines. In the transition phases against the Irish openers, they could create more. Carsley started playing with substitutions and probably even delayed them a little. Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest and Angel Gomez from French Lille made their debut in the national team. The guests extinguished the Irish fire, the hosts got tired. But the entertainment of English football has unfortunately returned to the level of Euro 2024.
If you haven’t seen the game in Dublin and want to watch it on tape, we recommend limiting yourself to the first 45 minutes so as not to waste time. However, the English team, which only played half-heartedly, achieved a thoroughly deserved victory. The main characters were Grealish and especially Rice. These are the most motivated players in Carsley’s team tonight. The final shooting statistic is 6:16 (on target – 1:9). In the second round of the Nations League, England will host Finland at Wembley on 10 September. The Irish will play another home game on the same day – against Greece.
