England have endured the first setback of Lee Carsley’s stint as interim head coach.
Greece, placed 44 places below their hosts in FIFA’s world rankings, secured their first win over England after Vangelis Pavlidis’ stoppage-time goal.
For Carsley, there was plenty to ponder after this 2-1 defeat in the Nations League. The head coach had briefly seen Jude Bellingham — who else? — haul England level, but even a draw would have felt fortuitous on a night when the home side’s tactical tweaks failed to pay off. England’s performance was disjointed for long periods.
In the absence of Harry Kane, Carsley experimented with an attack-minded lineup, using Bellingham up front, but his team were imbalanced and created few chances. Greece always posed a threat on the counter. Aside from Pavlidis’ opening goal, the first ever scored by Greece at Wembley, they had three others ruled out for offside before the striker conjured his late winner.
There was a fragility to England all evening. Levi Colwill did excellently to clear Tasos Bakasetas’ first-half effort off the line after Jordan Pickford’s error, while captain John Stones also summoned a block to deny Bakasetas. Greece finally took the lead early in the second half. With England panicked, Pavlidis wriggled away from Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Stones and Declan Rice to fizz a low shot into the net.
Palmer and Anthony Gordon spurned the hosts’ clearest chances but, even with natural strikers introduced, they offered little until Bellingham’s emphatic late strike. Yet even that proved a mirage as Greece won the game before paying tribute to international team-mate George Baldock, who died this week.
Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tim Spiers and Anantaajith Raghuraman dissect the main talking points at Wembley.
What did Carsley learn?
This was Carsley’s third game in charge of England, his first defeat, and he will have taken some painful lessons.
Rather than choosing a conventional replacement for Kane, Carsley went for a radical strikerless system. It was brave but it did not work and now Carsley will face the very English accusation that he tried to be “too clever”. Only when Ollie Watkins came on did England have any sort of conventional threat.
Carsley also dispensed with a midfielder to sit alongside Rice, preferring to pack the team with creative talent — another bold call, but one that allowed Greece to counter straight through England every single time.
England could have conceded four or five goals.
There was merit to Carsley’s experiment, even if tonight provided no solution to the problem of fitting in his creative players. He knows that every England manager is judged on results, not thought processes. Carsley will feel the sting of that on Friday morning.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Did the initial formation work?
In short, no.
Carsley’s selection was daring and could have satisfied fans calling for England to field all of their creative talents — but it came at the cost of balance. Too many players occupied similar areas of the pitch.
Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden were hardly involved at all, while Bellingham popped up in different positions without making an impact, barring a great swivel and pass for Palmer, who skied the chance over the bar. Palmer showed glimpses of his Chelsea form with some neat touches and lay-offs but failed to offer a goal threat.
Gordon was arguably Carsley’s most dangerous forward, heading over from England’s next best chance of the half following Alexander-Arnold’s crossfield pass before slipping in Bellingham during the build-up to Palmer’s chance. However, on more than one occasion, he turned back with the ball instead of taking on his man due to the absence of men in the box and Greece’s organisational discipline.
Offensively, Alexander-Arnold and left-back Rico Lewis were England’s most impressive players in the first half. When Greece played through England’s press, they also had plenty of space in midfield ahead of an unconvincing back line, resulting in good chances that weren’t taken until Pavlidis’ second-half strike.
Carsley’s response was to bring on Watkins for Gordon around the hour mark…
Anantaajith Raghuraman
And what about the rejig?
Watkins’ arrival, along with Noni Madueke for the injured Saka, saw England shift to a 4-3-3, with Bellingham and Foden operating behind the trio and Palmer shifting to the right wing. Watkins almost scored after being found by Palmer, but his shot flew just over the bar.
England’s shape-shifting was followed by a period of Greek dominance as chances flowed for the visitors. A second roll of the dice from Carsley followed as Dominic Solanke replaced Foden, which saw England effectively move to a 4-4-2.
The gaps in midfield remained, though, with Greece breaking forward at pace to send Christos Tzolis through on goal twice only to be stopped first by the offside flag and then by a recovering Colwill. England’s toothlessness in attack only seemed to be bettered by its porous defence in the 83rd minute when Pavlidis converted from a cutback following an interception of Pickford’s poor throw upfield, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
And then, the unlikely England goal arrived.
A neat passing move saw England set Solanke clear on the right and while his cutback initially missed all the England players in the box, Bellingham arrived late to score with a curled effort.
Watkins drew defenders towards him while Solanke grabbed an assist but the changed structure also offered minimal midfield protection. England’s defence didn’t cover itself in glory either.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
Did the defence have one of those nights?
Greece had attacking intentions and caused problems but a better side would have punished England even earlier for some inept early defending, not least from Pickford, who had two mad first-half minutes.
A fairly innocuous ball over the top that Stones probably had under control was met instead by a rampaging Pickford, who then completely froze 25 yards from his own goal and clanged the ball straight to Bakasetas. His goalbound shot was magnificently and acrobatically cleared off the line by Colwill.
From the resulting corner, Pickford haplessly flailed at the aerial ball and West Ham United’s Konstantinos Mavropanos headed into an empty net, before being flagged offside. Pickford has seldom let England down, but this was him at his erratic worst.
England’s defending was generally fairly ropey. Alexander-Arnold, Stones and Palmer didn’t fancy attempting to challenge Pavlidis, whose shot flew through Colwill’s legs. You could argue Pickford should have saved that, too.
There were let-offs after Greece’s opening goal, too, with two more goals ruled out for offside, the latter coming from a Pickford throw to Palmer that was intercepted before they swarmed into the box and Pavlidis beat Pickford again. It was indicative of a haphazard defensive display — one of the ugliest England have produced at Wembley in recent years.
England saved the worst for last. Greece’s 94th-minute winner was buffoonery personified, with several players failing to clear the ball. Lewis failed to clear and ended up on the floor with Colwill as Pavlidis struck. It was almost comical and the VAR couldn’t save them this time.
Tim Spiers
What happened to Saka?
Arsenal fans will once again be bemoaning international breaks. Mikel Arteta lost Martin Odegaard to injury when the midfielder was playing for Norway last month and, here, Saka worryingly limped off early in the second half.
Saka appeared to get his ankle caught when tracking back at one point in the first half. Then, early in the second, he limped away after an England attack broke down, then sat on the turf after Greece’s goal, clearly unable to continue.
He hobbled off gingerly to be replaced by Madueke and there will now be a nervy wait to discover the extent of the problem.
Carsley confirmed the player would be assessed. “Obviously in the build up to the first goal you can see he felt something in his leg,” said the interim manager.
He will hope it’s nothing serious and that Saka is available for Sunday’s trip to Finland. Arsenal play Bournemouth next weekend but, more importantly, have a game with title-chasing rivals Liverpool on the horizon at the end of October.
Saka’s injury may also reopen the debate about player welfare at the top level for a player who has already made 236 club appearances and earned 43 England caps by the age of 23.
Tim Spiers
How did the teams remember George Baldock?
There was a sombre moment just before kick-off as both teams — and the whole stadium — paid tribute to Baldock, who died this week at the age of 31.
The away team emerged with a white Greece home shirt sporting ‘BALDOCK 2’ on the back. Baldock, who was born in England but qualified for Greece through his grandmother, was capped 12 times. The last of those appearances came in March in the play-off defeat to Georgia that denied Greece a place at Euro 2024.
The Greece team hold Baldock’s shirt before kick-off (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Then, with the stadium’s big screens showing a photo of Baldock, the England players applauded on the edge of the centre circle while the Greece team stood arm-in-arm. Following announcements in English and Greek, the whole stadium then held still in silence — a minute’s respect that was perfectly observed.
There was even a Greece flag with a Sheffield United badge held up among the England fans, one of many perfect tributes paid to the former Milton Keynes Dons, Sheffield United and Panathinaikos defender.
Those continued during the game itself, with Pavlidis holding up a black armband as he celebrated opening the scoring and his team-mates gathering to lift the same ‘BALDOCK 2’ shirt to the heavens. There were tears on the final whistle as the visiting players approached their travelling support.
“It was a really special game for us because of George,” Pavlidis told ITV after the game. “We gave everything for him and his family. He’s been in our thoughts from the moment we heard the news. George was part of the team; a special guy. We just said we had to play for him. We gave everything for him.”
Jack Pitt-Brooke
What did Lee Carsley say?
On the performance, Carsley told ITV: “We were probably second best for a lot of the night. It’s disappointing, but we’re going to get setbacks. It’s important we respond well now against Finland on Sunday. We tried something different; we tried to overload the midfield and to play a little bit differently. We tried it for 20 minutes yesterday — it’s something we experimented with. It’s disappointing it didn’t come off.
“Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect too much so soon. The false 9 is definitely an option. When you have someone of Kane’s quality, you can rule it out (usually) because of the amount of goals he gets for us. But in the future, we have to have the ability and courage to try things.”
On the defending: “With the quality we’ve got, look at all the goals tonight; they’re all from mistakes, which is disappointing. Even at 1-1, we were quite fortunate at that point.”
On how the defeat might affect his chances of being appointed full-time: “It doesn’t change (things). My remit was to do the three camps (up to Christmas). Nothing changes in that respect.”
What next for England?
Sunday, October 13: Finland (A), Nations League, 5pm BST, 12pm ET
England travel to Helsinki having beaten Markku Kanerva’s side 2-0 at Wembley last month. Kane marked his 100th cap that night with a brace, taking his goal tally for his country to 68.
Recommended reading
- Why international football is under attack like never before
- England have used 13 strikers since Solanke’s last cap in 2017 – this is how they got on
- Lee Carsley’s latest squad: Experiments, the attacking conundrum and a ruthless streak
- Jack Grealish explains issue with Euro 2024 omission, hails ‘father figure’ Lee Carsley
- Imagining the true horror of FIFA’s first ever World Cup final half-time show in 2026
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
