Interim boss Lee Carsley says celebrations are on ice as England look to follow up their impressive win in Greece by sealing promotion back to the Nations League top tier by beating the Republic of Ireland.
Sunday’s match at Wembley is the 17th and final game of a hectic year that has seen the national team reach a second final in three tournaments and just the third in the history of the men’s side.
Defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 showpiece heralded the exit of Gareth Southgate, whose permanent successor Thomas Tuchel looks set to take over on the back of Nations League promotion.
Carsley’s side made amends for last month’s humiliating 2-1 home loss to Greece by winning the reverse fixture 3-0 in Athens, meaning victory against the Republic in his final match will see them go up.
“I think we’ve shown in the past that we’ve got so many quality players,” the interim boss said after Ollie Watkins opened the scoring having surprisingly got the nod ahead of captain Harry Kane.
“I suppose the biggest challenge would be fitting them all in and where do they all play?
“We’ve played with that balance, we’ve got so much quality. Players come in and out of form as well, so I think you have to take that into account.
“But I think there’s a lot of good performances tonight, real good team effort and hopefully we’ll see the same at Wembley.”
Watkins’ opener was followed in the second half by Jude Bellingham forcing Odysseas Vlachodimos into an own goal and debutant Curtis Jones scoring a fantastic flick, setting things up nicely for Sunday.
“I think we’ve put ourselves in a better position than we were before the game, but (we are) in no means celebrating at this point,” Carsley said ahead of his final match as interim boss.
“It’s important that we pay Ireland the respect that they deserve and we look forward to a sold-out Wembley to hopefully get a good result.”
Victory against the nation Carsley represented as a player will not only mean England avoid another campaign in the Nations League second tier but play-offs in Tuchel’s first camp.
The 50-year-old returns to his role as England Under-21s boss after Sunday and will attempt to lead them to a second straight Euros crown next summer, strengthening the senior team in the process.
“I definitely have got faith in younger players, but I’ve got faith in the older ones as well,” Carsley said of England’s options.
“When you’ve seen the team, you may have thought that was a bit of a gamble or a risk, but I’ve got real confidence and belief in these players.
“I’ve seen evidence of it, it’s been backed up. The fact now that they’ve done it in an England shirt is a real challenge from now to continue doing that.
“I think we’ve seen in the past with Germany and Spain that teams that are able to win the Euros 21s generally have six or seven players come through and hopefully we can continue that.
“There’s a generation of under-21 players that are just used to winning tournaments.
“Whether that be the (age-level) World Cup or the Euros, so them putting an England shirt on, they expect to win.
“That can only be good, not only (now) but in the future, so they just need to keep doing well at their clubs.”
England will assess defender Ezri Konsa before the Ireland match after he was withdrawn at half-time at Athens, meaning a 10th player could soon be pulling out of the squad.
Carsley said: “Ezri got a slight problem with his hip, so he’ll get scanned (on Friday).
“We won’t take any risks with him. If there’s any kind of doubt, he’ll go straight back to Aston Villa.
“We’ll keep an eye on that. He was actually OK just in terms of walking around. He’s in a good place, but we won’t take any risks.”