ITV pundit Roy Keane tore into England’s flops on Thursday night after a shoddy defeat to Greece at Wembley.
England missed the chance to top their Nations League group after a tepid display saw the Greeks run out 2-1 winners as they tributed the famous victory to George Baldock, who died aged 31 on Wednesday.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored twice, bagging the winner in the 94th minute after Jude Bellingham had equalised for the Three Lions seven minutes before with England’s second shot on target.
Lee Carsley’s decision to not start a striker backfired as he started plenty of attacking talents but without a plan.
Roy Keane hit out at the England defence
ITV
Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Anthony Gordon formed an attacking line-up but without a striker, they were largely blunted or in each other’s way.
Greece, on the contrary, looked lethal and clinical, executing the perfect press to pinch the ball off England’s shoddy defence on several occasions.
Jordan Pickford was guilty of losing the ball in the early stages after rushing out of his goal, needing an incredible goal-line clearance from Levi Colwill to spare his blushes.
But England did not learn their lesson and Greece’s high-pressure saw them score five times – with three ruled out for offside.
The victory was no less than what the visitors’ deserved as England looked ponderous in defence, midfield and attack.
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Greece deserved their victory over England, a famous one for their country
PA
“Greece played with energy and spirit. They didn’t settle and got the winning goal. What a great night for Greece!”
Speaking after the match, Carsley admitted England did not deserve anything from the match.
He said: “We were second best for a lot of tonight. It’s disappointing. We are going to get setbacks and it’s important we respond vs Finland.
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England looked ponderous at the back
PA
“We tried something different and play differently. We tried it for 20 minutes yesterday and it’s disappointing it didn’t come off.
“It’s a case of trying again. With the quality we have, all the goals were from mistakes. Even at 1-1 we were quite fortunate at that point.
“It’s an option [the system]. When you have someone of Kane’s quality, it rules it out. We tried something and in the future we need that courage to try. We tried something different.”
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