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 Mbappe 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.
Haaland scored twice to move onto 34 goals for Norway, one more than the previous record-holder Jorgen Juve from the 1930s. The striker was captaining Norway for the first time in his 36th international appearance.
Late goals by Matteo Guendouzi and Bradley Barcola wrapped up France’s win in Budapest against Israel in what felt like a new era for coach Didier Deschamps following the surprise retirement of Griezmann, a stalwart in the team for the past decade. Mbappe was missing because of a minor injury.
Italy squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Belgium, with Lorenzo Pellegrini’s red card for the hosts at 2-0 helping the Belgians recover in Rome.
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