Victory in Greece signals England are 'moving in the right direction', says Carsley

Interim coach Lee Carsley was delighted with the progress of his England side as they defeated Greece 3-0 in Athens to move top of their Nations League group.

Having fallen to a 2-1 defeat to Greece when they travelled to Wembley at the start of October, the Three Lions exacted revenge as Ollie Watkins opened the scoring early before an own goal and debut goal from Curtis Jones completed the rout deep in the second half.

The travelling side entered the international break without several key figures, including Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold, after nine players withdrew with injury.

While England are set to welcome the Republic of Ireland to their home venue on Sunday, Carsley is pleased with the development he has seen so far.

"It represents that we are moving in the right direction. We won't get too carried away, we have a big game on Sunday at Wembley,” he told ITV.

"It is just important the players played to their strengths. We have a lot of outstanding talent. The players that weren't here, we concentrated on the ones who were. They took their opportunity today.”

1982 - Curtis Jones is the first Liverpool player to score on his England debut since Sammy Lee back in November 1982, also in an away game against Greece. Flick. pic.twitter.com/lqL9XsrKGm

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 14, 2024

Carsley’s team featured three debutants – Jones, Morgan Rogers and Lewis Hall – with Jones scoring an audacious backheel flick to stun the crowd.

The Liverpool midfielder capped off what was already a tremendous performance as he had the most touches from either team (86) and delivered 100% passing accuracy in the final third.

"Curtis Jones is an outstanding player. He played really well, even without his goal. With his goal it was an excellent performance,” Carsley enthused.

"People were speaking last night about the inexperience in the squad but these players are playing for their clubs at a really high level."