Lee Carsley ran into the first problems of his tenure as England’s interim coach after a bold team selection backfired in a 2-1 home loss to Greece in the Nations League on Thursday.
Erling Haaland became Norway’s record scorer at the age of 24 with a double in his country’s 3-0 win over Slovakia, while France — playing without Kylian Mbappé and the retired Antoine Griezmann — still had far too much for Israel in a 4-1 victory.
After leading England to back-to-back victories since becoming temporary coach after the European Championship, Carsley felt emboldened enough to field a team without a recognized striker in the absence of injured captain Harry Kane.
The lineup looked interesting and exciting on paper but resembled a mess on the field as Greece repeatedly picked off England and got in behind a stretched defense.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored the opener for the visitors at Wembley Stadium in the 49th, Jude Bellingham equalized in the 87th, only for Pavlidis to take advantage of more sloppy defending to grab Greece’s winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Greece’s players, who also had three goals disallowed in the game, celebrated one of their most famous wins by gathering together and holding up the No. 2 jersey of George Baldock, the Panathinaikos defender who was found dead in his Athens home on Wednesday at age 31. Baldock played 12 matches for Greece and there was a period of silence in tribute to the right back ahead of the game, with players wearing black armbands.
“We gave everything for him,” Pavlidis said in a tribute to Baldock, who he described as a “special guy.”
It was England’s first loss to Greece, which is ranked No. 48 in the world ranking, in 10 matches between the teams and deals a major blow to Carsley’s hopes of becoming coach of the national team on a permanent basis.
It was meant to be fluid set-up, with in-form Chelsea playmaker Cole Palmer starting a competitive international for the first time for England and deployed in central midfield, with Phil Foden and Bellingham splitting time as the furthest player forward in an attack filled with midfielders.
It didn’t work.
“We never really gave ourselves a chance to see whether it was the right decision or wrong,” said Carsley, who insisted it was not an “experiment.”
“With the players we’ve got, we’ve got to be courageous at times with our systems and be creative. I thought it was important to try something different. I never at any point thought I’ve got it cracked. It was a case of, let’s try something different.”
Haaland’s record
Haaland scored twice to move onto 34 goals for Norway, one more than the previous record-holder Jorgen Juve from the 1930s.
Haaland, who has already scored 11 goals for Manchester City this season in all competitions, was captaining Norway for the first time in his 36th international appearance.
Alexander Sørloth also scored for Norway.
Coping without Mbappe
Mbappé wasn’t called up by France because of a minor injury, even though he has since played for Real Madrid, while the surprise retirement of Griezmann — a stalwart for coach Didier Deschamps for the past decade — gave it the feel of a new era for Les Bleus.
Goals by Matteo Guendouzi in the 87th and Bradley Barcola in the 89th wrapped up France’s win against Israel, after Eduardo Camavinga and Christopher Nkunku netted in the first half.
The game was played in Budapest, with Israeli teams having played home matches in neutral countries such as Hungary and Cyprus for security reasons since the Hamas attacks one year ago.
Red card
Italy forward Lorenzo Pellegrini’s red card proved decisive as his team squandered a two-goal lead and drew with Belgium 2-2 in Rome.
Italy went in front after barely 60 seconds, through right wing back Andrea Cambiaso, and striker Mateo Retegui made it 2-0 in the 24th.
Pellegrini was sent off for a foul on Arthur Theate that initially earned him a booking but was upgraded to a red card in the 40th after a VAR review.
From the resulting free kick, Maxim De Cuyper tucked away a fine finish from a well-worked move and Leandro Trossard equalized in the 61st.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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