Newcastle United trio help Three Lions to dominant victory in Athens | OneFootball

It ended Greece 0 England 3.

Lee Carsley taking charge of his fifth game.

His time in ‘interim’ charge so far had brought three wins and one defeat.

England having won 2-0 against both the Republic of Ireland (away) and Finland (home) in the September internationals. Then a 2-1 defeat at Wembley to Greece, followed by a 3-1 away win against Finland in Helsinki.

Thomas Tuchel has been named as the new permanent appointment but Lee Carsley with these final two games ahead of Tuchel taking charge.

Lee Carsley getting media and many fans going over the top (once again) with their comments as he made eight changes Only Walker, Guehi and Bellingham remain from the team that started against Finland in the last match. Anthony Gordon one of those coming into the team. With Newcastle United pair, Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, amongst the subs.

Many changes were enforced with nine ‘injured’ players dropping out of the squad but other surprise changes as well, including dropping Harry Kane and playing Ollie Watkins instead.

England actually looked all the better for many of the chances and started very positively in a hostile environment with a sold out home crowd, who had real expectations of doing the double over England.

However, England were the better team from the start and a brilliant flowing move saw Bellingham play a superb ball down the line for Maudeke, with the Chelsea winger leaving his marker for dead and his cutback coolly turned in by Watkins.

The insistence on playing Harry Kane pretty much every single game has been ridiculous over the years, meaning that if/when he isn’t available to start, you have alternative strikers with next to zero previous England action. Kane has been excellent for England but playing him in every friendly and so on might have helped ensure he is now the leading goalscorer in history for his country, but I don’t think it has helped the team over the years, leaving them very predictable and one-dimensional much of the time.

England looked like they were going to batter Greece as they attacked again and again, Anthony Gordon and Madueke on the wings looking really dangerous.

Greece weathered the storm and were helped by a useless referee who booked both Bellingham and Gallagher within a minute, neither were deserved.

It became a more even game as Greece pressed for an equaliser and England sitting back a little more with that goal advantage.

Lewis Hall replaced Konsa at the break and with the Newcastle man at left-back instead of Rico Lewis, that gave England far better balance and maybe the biggest compliment is that he looked so comfortable and took it in his stride. What a player the 20 year old is going to be for Newcastle AND Greece.

Pickford did well as he made a few decent saves and England defended well, Greece having only 13 touches of the ball in the England penalty area.

Carsley made three attacking changes on 66 minutes, including Anthony Gordon replaced.

As the match went on England looking well on top as Greece tired and chances came for the away side.

I think Bellingham particularly benefited from some of the usual suspects not playing, as there was more movement and space created for him. An excellent run on 77 minutes saw his quality strike hit the post and Newcastle keeper Vlachodimos very unlucky to see the ball bounce off him and back into the net. An inadvertent goal ‘scored’ for England to help them to victory.

Another very good flowing move on 83 minutes ended with a sublime Jones backheel flick to end the scoring.

England now know that a win against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday will guarantee they finish top of this Nations League group.

I think you have to wonder that if some of the usual suspects hadn’t let Lee Carsley down in that woeful performance against Greece at Wembley, would he really have been overlooked by The FA and Thomas Tuchel handed the job instead, if winning all of these Nations League matches?

Final score:

Greece 0 England 3

England team v Greece:

Pickford, Walker, Konsa (Hall 46), Guehi, Lewis, Jones, Gallagher (Gibbs-White 79), Bellingham, Madueke (Bowen 66), Gordon (Rogers 66), Watkins (Kane 66)

Unused Subs:

Trafford, Henderson, Angel, Livramento, Quansah, Harwood-Bellis, Solanke

England confirmed schedule to end of 2024:

Saturday 7 September – Republic of Ireland 0 England 2

Tuesday 10 September – England 2 Finland 0

Thursday 10 October – England 1 Greece 2