A month after Lee Carsley’s all-out attacking strategy ended with a shock 2-1 defeat to Greece at Wembley, England bounced back to beat the same opponents 3-0 in Athens on Thursday and are now on the verge of automatic promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins opened the scoring before an own goal from Odysseas Vlachodimos and Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones’s flicked finish, on his England debut, rounded things off.
With Thomas Tuchel taking charge of the national team in January, Sunday’s group finale against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley will be Carsley’s final game as interim manager.
England are hoping to return to League A, the competition’s 16-team elite, and winning last night to go top of the group means beating the Irish or bettering Greece’s result away to Finland the same day will secure promotion for the next playing of the Nations League in 2026-27.
How can England gain automatic promotion?
If England top League B, Group 2, they will be automatically promoted to League A, from which they were relegated last season, along with Austria, the Czech Republic and Wales.
After beating Greece 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Thursday, England moved to the top of the group, on head-to-head goal difference, with the Greeks second after four wins from five matches each. Ireland are third, six points behind England and Greece, and winless Finland bottom.
Finish second and promotion is still possible through a home-and-away play-off tie against a third-placed team from one of the four groups in League A, which would take place in March next year. The third-place teams in League A as things stand are: Poland, Belgium, Hungary and Serbia. But with one group phase matchday to go, all England need to do to secure top spot is beat the Irish, who they defeated 2-0 in September’s reverse fixture in Dublin, or better Greece’s result against Finland in Helsinki.
Curtis Jones celebrates scoring in England’s 3-0 win over Greece (Aris Oikonomou/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images)
What if England lose to the Republic of Ireland?
If England are beaten at Wembley on Sunday evening, the furthest they can drop to is second in their group, where they would enter a home-and-away promotion/relegation tie against one of the four third-placed finishers from League A. Those play-offs happen next March, in what will be Tuchel’s first international window as the manager.
Should England secure automatic promotion this weekend, they can turn their attention to starting their 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March instead (European nations drawn in groups of five start their campaign then, those placed in groups of four must wait until September).
England are navigating their final 2024-25 Nations League group games this week after being hit by injuries to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Levi Colwill, Jack Grealish and Aaron Ramsdale, who all withdrew from the squad.
Could England suffer successive relegations?
England are mathematically clear of relegation to the third tier of the Nations League. Finland will go down after they were beaten 1-0 by the Republic of Ireland in Dublin yesterday, leaving them six points adrift at the bottom of the table on zero points with one round of games to go.
The Irish, similarly cemented in third behind England and Greece, will enter the promotion/relegation play-offs in March and face one of the second-place finishers from League C.
Does any of this matter?
The Nations League was introduced in the 2018-19 season to replace what UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, called “meaningless” international friendlies and to give teams more competitive games against teams of a similar standard to themselves.
In total, 54 countries are spread over four leagues — labelled A to D — with 16 each in Leagues A, B and C, and six in League D. Each league is split into groups, with four groups (A1, A2, A3, A4 etc) in Leagues A to C and two in League D. Each team play six games in the league phase (four in League D) — home and away against all the other sides in their group.
League A is top of the tree and where the eventual Nations League champions are decided. League A’s group winners face its runners-up in home-and-away quarter-finals in March to qualify for June’s final four.
Up for grabs is significant prize money. For the last campaign, eventual winners Spain were awarded €10.5million (£8.9m, $11.7m), while runners-up Croatia got €9m. This is on top of an initial payment for participating, which goes from €1.5m for League A teams to €500,000 for League D teams. There are also extra bonuses for winning your group, ranging from €750,000 in League A to €250,000 in League D.
Sunday’s game against the Republic of Ireland will be Lee Carsley’s final match in interim charge (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
What is England’s Nations League record?
Not great, considering they are the fourth-best nation in the world, according to rankings compiled by football’s global governing body FIFA. Even though top nations sometimes rotate squads in the competition, England’s record should be better than it is.
After finishing third in the inaugural competition in 2019, they came third in their top-tier group two years later and then got relegated in 2023 having failed to win any of their six group games.
This season, England have scored 11 goals in their first five matches, winning four of them, but October’s historic home loss against Greece, especially the performance itself, was a low moment.
Matches played: 23 (including two knockout round appearances)
Wins: 9
Draws: 6
Losses: 8
How to watch
Kick-off at Wembley is at 5pm GMT (12pm ET). For UK viewers, it will be broadcast live on ITV1. Viewers in the U.S. can watch the game on FS1.
(Top picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images)