Curtis Jones’ exquisite backheel caps England’s comprehensive victory in Greece
The brief interregnum of Lee Carsley has not been without mishap, although in Athens so the odyssey delivered him from the mistakes of his past and a triumph that means life will be a little simpler for his successor Thomas Tuchel.
First the Nations League – then the world. England now have only to beat the Republic of Ireland on Sunday to be promoted back to the top tier of the Uefa competition as the winners of their group. A relatively small step forward but, should England win at Wembley, there will be no March play-off for the new England manager. As for Carsley, he can depart the caretaker role having in part vanquished the nightmare of defeat by Greece last month.
There was another roll of the dice from Carsley, who seemed committed to making the kind of big decisions that can damage a manager. This time he left out England captain, and all-time leading goalscorer, Harry Kane and when his replacement Ollie Watkins scored on seven minutes, one suspected this might be the manager’s night. There was a debut for Curtis Jones, who started the game and scored the third, as well as first caps for the substitutes Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers.
It was a young team in much of its composition, with Rico Lewis playing both full-back positions over the course of the night and Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon impressive on the wings. England had to survive another robust Greece performance in the second half, but his boys came good for Carsley – and his substitutions changed the game anew.
Rogers would play a crucial role in England’s second, directed into his own net by Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos. Morgan Gibbs-White came off the bench to create the third for Jones. Perhaps this was a glimpse of the kind of future that Tuchel has ahead of him, but it was not always straightforward. Jordan Pickford had to make two fine saves.
There were moments of inspiration from Jude Bellingham for the first two goals. The team came through for Carsley.
The requirement was to beat Greece by a greater margin than the single goal by which the Greeks had won at Wembley and get back to the top of the group. Stay there and it means Tuchel will fulfil the October prophecy of the FA chief executive Mark Bullingham that the German will only coach World Cup qualifiers. Tuchel left Carsley to piece together a side from the various withdrawals of Premier League clubs who did not seem to feel their players should turn up if the new manager was not coming either.
Yet Carsley negotiated a way through and despite some of the usual Premier League grumbling, he seized it as a chance to launch his generation of players. Jones, Madueke, Gordon and Gibbs-White were all under-21 European champions with Carsley last year. Bellingham would have been were it not for his precocity. “It’s good for Jude to see the quality that is underneath him coming through,” Carsley said.
These players are certainly, in Carsley’s eyes, no B-team. Indeed, they are the players who gave him the greatest triumph of his coaching career. Every successful nation needed to win at under-21 level first, Carsley said. “There is a generation of under-21s players who are just used to winning tournaments, be it the World Cup or the Euros. When they put on an England shirt they expect to win.”
It is an interesting prospect that the next generation will come hard on the heels of the last, who are by no means at the end either. The likes of Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Declan Rice were not in Athens, but their understudies did enough to suggest that the Gareth Southgate generation was not a one-off phenomenon. There will be bigger tests. Also, the competition is becoming fierce.
The Kane question is one that Tuchel will have to wrestle with. The 31-year-old is by no means nearing the end, certainly not with an incoming England manager who championed his signing at Bayern Munich, yet this was arguably a taste of what a different future might look like for a fixture of the England team over the past decade.
The return on selecting Watkins was immediate – a goal on seven minutes at the end of a thrilling move down Greece’s embattled right side. Watkins was the right man in the right place to make the angle for Madueke to pass. A glance over the shoulder from Bellingham as he drifted out to the right with his back to goal and he saw the run of Madueke. His cross for Watkins was perfect.
Madueke and Gordon overwhelmed their full-backs at times in the first half, the former up against Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas. This was likely closer to what Carsley had tried to do in the game against Greece at Wembley, and this time it made more sense. Jones looked comfortable in midfield with Conor Gallagher, who had to ride an early booking.
German referee Daniel Siebert got a taste for the cards and there was a first-ever England booking for Pickford, unexpectedly for time-wasting. Kyle Walker got another. The officials could do nothing about the laser pens aimed at the eyes of the visiting players from the crowd. Pickford made a fine first-half save from Tsimikas and did so again after the break from the substitute Fotis Ioannidis.
Carsley reorganised at half-time. Ezri Konsa went off with a minor problem. Walker moved to centre-half and Hall was on at left-back. Then Carsley changed his attacking three after the hour and England would score two more. Rogers released Bellingham into a pocket of space to run at the Greece defence. His shot hit a post and then cannoned in off the legs of goalkeeper Vlachodimos.
Another substitute, Gibbs-White, brought an energy for England’s third. The move began in their own area and the Nottingham Forest man took the ball up the pitch, getting it back for the cross that Jones turned in with a flick of the inside heel of his right boot.
