A month after Lee Carsley’s all-out attacking strategy ended with a shock 2-1 defeat to Greece at Wembley, England bounced back to beat the same opponent 3-0 in Athens on Thursday and are now on the verge of automatic Nations League promotion.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins opened the scoring before an own goal from Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos and Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones’s flicked finish, on his England debut, rounded things off.
With Thomas Tuchel taking charge of the national team in January, Sunday’s match against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley will be Carsley’s final game as England’s interim manager.
England are hoping to return to League A and their win over Greece on Thursday means, now top of the group, they just have to beat the Republic of Ireland or better Greece’s result to secure automatic promotion.
How can England gain automatic promotion?
If England top League B, Group 2, they will be automatically promoted to League A, from which they were relegated last season along with Austria, Czech Republic and Wales.
After beating Greece 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Thursday, England moved to the top of the group, on head-to-head goal difference, with Greece second after four wins from five, and the Republic of Ireland third, six points behind England and Greece, and winless Finland bottom.
Finish second and promotion is still possible through a home-and-away tie against a third-placed team from League A, which will take place March 20-25, 2025.
But with one Nations League group phase matchday to go, all England need to do is beat the Republic of Ireland to win the group or better Greece’s result against Finland.
Curtis Jones celebrates scoring in England’s 3-0 win over Greece (Aris Oikonomou/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images)
What if England lose to the Republic of Ireland?
If England are beaten at home on November 17, the furthest they can drop to is second in their group, where they would enter a home-and-away promotion/relegation tie against a third-placed team from League A.
The play-offs happen in March 2025, Tuchel’s first international window. If they gain automatic promotion, they can turn their attention to World Cup qualifiers in March instead (nations drawn in groups of five start their campaign in March and those from groups of four in September).
England are navigating their final Nations League group games after being hit by injuries to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Levi Colwill, Jack Grealish and Aaron Ramsdale, who all withdrew from the squad.
Could England suffer successive relegations?
England are mathematically clear of relegation. Finland will be automatically relegated after they were beaten 1-0 by the Republic of Ireland and are six points adrift at the bottom of the table with no points.
The Republic of Ireland, cemented in third, will enter the promotion/relegation play-offs with a second place in League C.
Does any of this matter?
The Nations League was introduced in the 2018-19 season to replace what UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, called “meaningless” international friendlies and to give countries more competitive games against teams of a similar standard.
In total, 54 teams are spread over four leagues — labelled A to D — with 16 teams each in Leagues A, B and C, and six in League D. Each league is split into groups, with four groups (A1, A2, A3, A4 etc) in Leagues A to C and two in League D.
Each team plays six games in the league phase; home and away fixtures against the three other teams in the group.
League A is top of the tree and where the Nations League winner is decided. League A winners face League A runners-up in home-and-away quarter-finals to qualify for the final four.
Up for grabs is significant prize money. For the last campaign, eventual winners Spain were awarded €10.5million (£8.9m, $11.7m), while runners-up Croatia got €9m.
This is on top of an initial payment for participating, which goes from €1.5m for League A teams to €500,000 for League D teams. There are also extra bonuses for winning your group, ranging from €750,000 in League A to €250,000 in League D.
Sunday’s game against the Republic of Ireland will be Lee Carsley’s final match in interim charge (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
What’s England’s Nations League record?
Not great considering they are the fourth-best nation in the world, according to FIFA rankings. Even though top nations sometimes rotate squads in the competition, England’s record should be better.
This season, England have scored 11 goals in five matches, winning four times, but October’s historic loss to Greece, especially the performance itself, was a low moment.
Matches played: 23 (including two knockout round appearances)
Wins: 9
Draws: 6
Losses: 8
How to watch
Kick-off at Wembley is at 5pm GMT (12pm ET). For UK viewers, it will be broadcast live on ITV1. Viewers in the U.S. can watch the game on FS1.
(Top picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
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