This was a shambles which turned into a humiliation.
The night when Lee Carsley’s audition for the England job on a permanent basis went horribly wrong and will surely send the Football Association back to the drawing board. Vangelis Pavlidis scored twice, first to give the visitors the lead and then to complete a disastrous night for England as the Greece striker hit a 94th minute winner.
England were booed off by huge sections of the 79,012 crowd while the Greek fans celebrated a famous victory. In contrast, this will go down as one of England’s worst ever Wembley nights. It turns out that you cannot just pick all your best players, send them out without much of a coherent formation or any sort of tactical plan.
Brave, foolhardy, naive, call it what you like. Whatever Carsley’s tactics were, they backfired in spectacular fashion and made him look weak. It felt like Carsley was afraid to drop one of the big guns when the reality is that you probably cannot get Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer into the same line-up and look anything remotely like a team.
It means England have gone from Euro finalists under Gareth Southgate, the team ranked fourth in the world, to not being able to hold their own in Nations League Group B2. It now leaves the FA with a huge dilemma because this was Carsley’s job to lose – and he looks to have blown it. The optimism and hope has quickly gone from Carsley’s first two wins.
Incredibly, England managed just two shots on target all night – Bellingham’s effort in the third minute and then his late leveller – and Greece should and could have won by more goals. Greece actually had the ball in the net FOUR times, they had three disallowed by tight offside margins but England’s defence was opened up with so much ease.
But then what do you expect? If you play something that resembles a 4-1-5 formation – with five attacking players – then you are going to get exposed. Declan Rice tried to protect the back four but it was a thankless task at times until finally Carsley abandoned his false nine experiment and finished the game with two strikers on the pitch as both Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke came on as substitutes.
It was too little, too late. Jordan Pickford looked like a bundle of nerves with no protection as the players in front of him had no tactical discipline. The Everton keeper has been so reliable for England but was caught in possession outside of his box, Greece captain Anastasios Bakasetas fired the ball towards an empty net and somehow Levi Colwill cleared off the line. It was heroic.
Palmer should have scored but blazed over while Anthony Gordon headed over. You thought they would get better in the second half – but it got worse.
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Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham both struggled in England’s new formation (
Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Greece defender Konstantinos Koulierakis drove forward, Pavlidis took the ball in the box and four England defenders – yes, four – stood off and watched before the Benfica striker fired past Pickford and into the bottom corner for the 49th minute opener. Bukayo Saka went off with what looked like a hamstring injury and England were at sixes and sevens as Greece tore them apart on the break.
Bellingham looked to have salvaged some pride with an 87th minute equaliser as he drove the ball through a crowd of players and gave Wembley some hope. But that evaporated when Greece exposed them again. England had thrown everyone forward, forgot about defending and then Rico Lewis failed to clear, Pavlidis smashed a shot past Pickford and condemned Carsley to a shocking defeat.
What an utter embarrassment. Carsley was the obvious choice, the easy choice to replace Gareth Southgate and yet now it feels like England will have to look elsewhere if they want to remain as a serious force.