Jude Bellingham was one of the stars of the show as England put Greece to the sword in Athens in a match that was overshadowed by nine players pulling out of the Three Lions squad beforehand
Jude Bellingham joined Harry Kane in referencing the players who withdrew from England duty this week in the aftermath of the 3-0 win over Greece.
The Three Lions headed into Thursday night’s crucial fixture in Athens knowing that only a win would put them in the driving seat to win their Nations League group following last month’s shock loss against Ivan Jovanovic’s side at Wembley.
Ollie Watkins fired England into an early lead, though, to hand Lee Carsley’s side the initiative. And England scored twice more after the break – an own goal from Odysseas Vlachodimos and a debut strike from Curtis Jones – to reclaim top spot in Group B2.
Carsley had endured a difficult build-up to the match with no fewer than NINE England stars withdrawing from the squad. That led to Kane expressing his frustrations in a pre-match interview, saying: “I think England comes before anything. It comes before club and it is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer.
“Gareth was on hot on that and he wasn’t afraid and he wasn’t afraid to make decisions if that started to drift from certain players.
“It’s a shame this week obviously. Yeah, I think it’s a tough period of the season and maybe that’s been taken advantage of a little bit.”
Speaking post-match, Bellingham also mentioned the players who pulled out of the match before praising the likes of Jones and others who stepped up during an interview with ITV Sport. He said: “A lot was made of the lads that weren’t here, but I think the lads that did show up were amazing. Curtis [Jones] making his debut, scoring, playing as he did, amazing. Really proud of the boys tonight.
“There would have been a million and one excuses if we didn’t play well or didn’t get over the line but the lads went out and did their business so professionally. Back to the top of the group where we belong.”
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Carsley, who will make way for Thomas Tuchel after Sunday’s match against the Republic of Ireland, praised England’s next generation for stepping up.
He told ITV Sport: “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.
“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.
“Curtis Jones is an outstanding player. He played really well, even without his goal. With his goal it was an excellent performance.
“People were speaking last night about the inexperience in the squad but these players are playing for their clubs at a really high level.”
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