Lee Carsley made a successful begin to his England tenure with a snug 2-0 win over the Republic of Eire within the Nations League, helped by two gamers who beforehand represented the hosts.
Each targets got here within the first half on Saturday, with Declan Rice’s highly effective end adopted up by Jack Grealish’s sweeping effort at hand England their first win in Dublin in over 60 years.
Jayson Molumby’s early probability provided the guests a warning, however Harry Kane headed over as Carsley’s staff swiftly took management.
The England captain, now one shy of his a hundredth Three Lions cap, was denied by Caoimhin Kelleher moments later contained in the field after a quick break from an Eire free-kick.
However England had the lead after 11 minutes. Having made three senior appearances for Eire, Rice pledged his worldwide future to the Three Lions in 2019, and it was the Arsenal midfielder who opened the scoring with an emphatic end into the roof of the web.
Rice turned supplier for an additional who switched their worldwide allegiance, as Grealish rounded off a high quality transfer to double England’s benefit quarter-hour later.
Eire improved after the interval, although hardly ever got here shut to actually testing Jordan Pickford.
Bukayo Saka went near including additional gloss to a formidable show in added time, solely to see his effort repelled by Kelleher with substitute Eberechi Eze firing over on the rebound.
Job completed in Dublin.
The proper begin to our #NationsLeague marketing campaign in Lee Carsley’s first sport as interim head coach pic.twitter.com/eklMp8SsVJ
— England (@England) September 7, 2024
Information Debrief: Rice and Grealish hang-out Eire
In a sport the place all the main focus was positioned on former Eire worldwide Carsley, it might be two of the Republic’s former hopes that stole the headlines in Dublin.
Rice’s objective on the Aviva Stadium got here six years and 97 days after making his solely earlier look there for Eire in opposition to america in June 2018.
He accomplished 88 of his 93 passes and ended with an accuracy charge of 94.6%, a complete solely bettered by Pickford (96.3%) of people who began the sport.
Grealish, in the meantime, netted his third objective for England, and his first as a starter. Whereas he was on the pitch, no England participant received extra fouls (4) or created extra possibilities (two) than him.
