England seals promotion to Nations League top tier

England secured promotion back into the League A of the Nations League on Sunday after the Three Lions defeated the Republic of Ireland in an emphatic 5-0 win in Lee Carsley’s final game in charge of the team.

England scored five second half goals after a stale first half saw both teams enter the break with a stalemate. In a victory described as an important one by skipper Harry Kane, his 53rd minute penalty was followed by two goals in three minutes.

Anthony Gordon first doubled the advantage in the 55th minute before Conor Gallagher added to the scoreline three minutes later. While the red card to Ireland’s Liam Scales few minutes after the restart may have given England the opportunity to show their strength, it took a while before the score changed to 4-0.

Jarrod Bowen’s 75th minute strike was followed by Harwood-Bellis’s effort to seal off Lee Carsley’s send off in style. Carsley, who took charge of the Three Lions on the interim basis after Gareth Southgate’s exit, will leave the job for Thomas Tuchel who resumes in January ahead of the next set of duty for the World Cup qualifiers.

Meanwhile, England skipper Harry Kane was happy to see the tenure of Carsley come to an end in good style after coming in to fill the gap created by Southgate’s exit in the summer.

“A really important win for us. It has been a really good camp and two tough games. We got the job done in Greece and again here. It was a tough first half, but we came out with more energy, and we finished it off. We spoke about new opportunities for new lads and they’ve shown why they are here and a couple of good finishes. It was nice for Jarrod [Bowen] too to come on and score straight away.” Kane said.