England’s thrashing of Ireland lets Carsley hand over in style to Tuchel

Rabiot and Digne help France secure Nations League Group A2 top spot with win over Italy

18 November 2024 - 10:45 By Martyn Herman and Julien Pretot
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Harry Kane celebrates scoring England's first goal in their Uefa Nations League group stage win against Republic of Ireland at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.
Harry Kane celebrates scoring England's first goal in their Uefa Nations League group stage win against Republic of Ireland at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.
Image: Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers

England interim manager Lee Carsley will provide Thomas Tuchel a detailed handover note after ending his brief tenure on a high with a 5-0 hammering of Ireland on Sunday.

The win ensured England return to the top tier of the Nations League with Carsley winning five of his six games since stepping up from the country's under-21s following Gareth Southgate's decision to stand down after the Euros.

Defeat at home by Greece aside, Carsley has impressed England's top brass and in his six games at the helm he gave eight players their senior international debuts.

With a host of regulars such as Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Phil Foden unavailable for his last two games in charge, Carsley gave opportunities to several players who he believes can be part of Tuchel's plans for the World Cup qualification campaign.

"We'll debrief the three camps we've had, not just this camp," Carsley, who will return to his role with the U-21s, said.

"I'll put together a document, and then hopefully go meet [Tuchel] and present what we think and what we found. The job is for us as to support the senior manager as much as we can, find out what he needs and how we can help.

"I'm looking forward to meeting him in the next few weeks."

Carsley gave debuts to Curtis Jones, Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers in the 3-0 win in Greece on Thursday and on Sunday Tino Livramento and Taylor Harwood-Bellis earned their first caps, the latter marking the occasion with a goal after coming on as a substitute in the second half.

"The mentality that they showed to gain promotion from the Nations League, that potentially increases the pool of players that Thomas has got to choose from," Carsley said.

"The challenge now for the players that have been involved for the last three camps is to be in around the March squad. A lot of them have done themselves a lot of good in terms of enhancing their reputations."

Former Everton midfielder Carsley has also done himself no harm and received a glowing report from the Football Association's chief executive Mark Bullingham.

"Lee has achieved the main objective from the six fixtures this autumn: securing promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League," Bullingham said.

"He has selected some exciting new players and will be providing Thomas Tuchel and Anthony Barry with a very detailed handover as they start work on our qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup.

"The players have really enjoyed working with Lee and his team -- they have made a real impact in their interim roles." 

England secured promotion with their romp over 10-man Ireland at Wembley.

After a turgid first half, Harry Kane's penalty, Anthony Gordon's volley and a tap-in by Conor Gallagher in the space of five minutes at the start of the second broke Ireland's resolve.

Jarrod Bowen made it 4-0 with a crisp shot from the edge of the area, his first touch after coming off the bench, before debutant Taylor Harwood-Bellis headed England's fifth.

Ireland played virtually the whole of the second half with 10 men after Liam Scales was sent off for a foul on Jude Bellingham that resulted in England's penalty.

England finished top of Group B2 with 15 points from six games, the same as Greece. 

Also on Sunday, Adrien Rabiot and Lucas Digne combined perfectly to celebrate their 50th international caps to give France a 3-1 away win against Italy in the Nations League Group A2 decider as they finished top of the table on Sunday.

Rabiot grabbed a brace after being set up twice by Digne, whose screamer of a free kick was deflected into his own goal by Guglielmo Vicario while Italy scored through Andrea Cambiaso.

The result put France on 13 points at the end of the group phase, ahead of Italy on goal difference after the Azzurri had prevailed 3-1 at the Parc des Princes in September.

Israel claimed their only win in the group as they beat Belgium 1-0 in Budapest to finish level on points with the Red Devils, but last due to their worse head-to-head record. 

Reuters


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