Republic of Ireland vs England | UEFA Nations League | Post Match

England made a winning start under interim boss Lee Carsley as Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored against the Republic of Ireland in their Nations League opener in Dublin.

In England’s first match since the Euro 2024 final, marking the start of the new era after Gareth Southgate’s resignation, the Three Lions made a confident start in a fiery atmosphere and took a deserved lead through goals from players who made unpopular returns to the Aviva. Rice and Grealish, having represented Ireland at youth level, were booed by the home crowd but struck against them within the opening 26 minutes.

Grealish’s second goal, set up by Rice, came from a flowing England move that summed up their impressive first-half display under Carsley. However, England lost their rhythm after the break as Ireland grew into the contest, in what could have been a tribute act to some of Southgate’s former side’s performances at the recent European Championships.

The visitors, though, were largely untroubled by a limited Ireland side and there were opportunities for Morgan Gibbs-White and Angel Gomes to make their England debuts late on.

After all the focus on the soundtrack, Lee Carsley’s first game as Englandmanager was certainly loaded with narrative. The inevitable line is that you couldn’t script this but, well, it’s really the first thing you’d script.

Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored the goals in a 2-0 England win over Ireland, the national team they both left, to also overcome a constant chorus of boos. If anything, such a response seemed to counter-productively drive them on, in the way that often happens. At least for a time. This win really just evolved into the sort of win over a smaller country that England have long learned to expect under Gareth Southgate, albeit with one important twist. The attacking under Carsley was different throughout and, for a brief period, quite exciting. There was a sense of evolution.

Any sense of competitiveness in this briefly feisty match dissipated with Rice’s superbly taken opening goal. After that, other than trying to discern the nice patterns and the differences to Southgate, it turned into one of those occasions where people will mostly be talking about all of the colour around it. And colour there certainly was.