England head to the Athens Olympic Stadium on Thursday to face Greece in their penultimate Group B2 match of the UEFA Nations League.
In the last meeting between the teams, England suffered a shock 2-1 defeat after Vangelis Pavlidis scored twice, including a last-gasp 94th-minute winner, to hand the Three Lions their first and only loss of the tournament.
Greece’s unbeaten run sees them top the group in this Nations League campaign, while England have won three games, picking up nine points from a possible 12 available. A win in Thursday’s clash will put England level at the summit of the group but Lee Carsley’s side will need to put at least three goals between them and their opponent to secure the top spot.
The encounter on Thursday will be England’s first match since the appointment of Thomas Tuchel, who will take over from interim manager Carsley in January.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Key details:
Date: Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7.45 p.m. BST (2:45 p.m. ET).
Venue: Athens Olympic Stadium
Ref: Daniel Siebert
VAR: Bastian Dankert
How to watch:
The game will be shown live on ITV and ITVX in the UK. You can also follow along with ESPN’s live updates.
Stats:
• England have won seven of the 10 games between the teams, with Greece claiming two victories alongside a single draw.
• Greece have lost just one of their last 16 games in the UEFA Nations League, and have won seven of their last nine home matches.
• England have lost just one of their last six away matches outside of major tournaments.
To be provided by ESPN’s Stat and Information Group.
Team news:
Carsley’s England squad are under pressure to perform against Greece despite an injury exodus that has seen eight players pull out of the squad for the upcoming fixtures against Greece and Republic of Ireland.
Arsenal‘s Bukayo Saka and Chelsea‘s Cole Palmer are among the eight players to have pulled out. Levi Colwill, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Aaron Ramsdale and Declan Rice are also not available.
The exclusion of these players has seen Aston Villa‘s Morgan Rogers handed a first-ever call-up and the uncapped duo of Tino Livramento and James Trafford have also been added into the squad along with Jarrod Bowen and Jarrad Branthwaite.
Kyle Walker remains in the squad despite being a fitness doubt, and it remains to be seen whether he will start at right-back ahead of either Livramento, Ezri Konsa or Manchester City teammate Rico Lewis, who is also in contention to start at left-back along with uncapped Lewis Hall.
After scoring twice for Greece in the reverse fixture in October, Pavlidis could continue to lead the line despite the return of Fotis Ioannidis from injury. Ioannidis scored three times in Greece’s opening two Nations league matches and Greece have never lost a match in which he has landed on the scoresheet.
Key quotes:
England captain Harry Kane has hit out at several players who withdrew from the squad, saying that country must always come before club football.
Interim coach Lee Carsley will be without nine players, some of them regular starters, who were called up by interim boss Lee Carsley have pulled out due to injuries.
Kane said this was never the case when Gareth Southgate was in charge as he created an environment where players looked forward to England camps.
“The joy to play for England, I think he brought that back. Every camp, people were excited to come, people wanted to play for England and that’s the most important thing. I think England comes before anything, comes before club,” Kane told ITV Sport.
“It’s the most important thing you play as a professional footballer. Gareth was hot on that and he wasn’t afraid to make decisions if that started to drift from certain players. It’s a shame this week. Obviously I think it’s a tough period of the season and maybe there’s been a taking advantage of that a little bit. I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest… I think England comes before anything.”
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