England travel to Helsinki to face Finland in the Nations League this Sunday, following a shock home defeat to Greece at Wembley last night.
Interim boss Lee Carsley admitted the defeat was on him after fielding an experimental line-up, and said he hopes he’ll be going back to the under-21s after his brief tenure is finished.
England were without captain Harry Kane at Wembley and may travel to the Finnish capital without Arsenal star Bukayo Saka too after a video surfaced of the winger limping out of the Wembley dressing rooms.
When questioned on this, Carsley said: “He’s being assessed, he felt something in his leg.”
This could open the door for some more changes to the team, and potentially an opportunity to stake a claim to a starting place for the likes of Anthony Gordon and Cole Palmer.
Uncapped duo Curtis Jones and Tino Livramento could see their first taste of senior internationals this weekend too, after they were drafted in as cover due to a few too many knocks in the England camp.
Jones made Gareth Southgate’s provisional 33-man squad for last summer’s Euros but didn’t make the final cut, whilst Livramento was selected in Carsley’s last England squad but didn’t make it off the bench.
Finland head into the game in a similar state to England, themselves suffering late defeat at home as Robbie Brady secured the points for the Republic of Ireland last night, as the Finns sit rock bottom of the group.
England took a comfortable if unremarkable 2-0 win at Wembley in the reverse fixture, with Harry scoring a second half brace in Lee Carsley’s first home game in charge.
Finland are bottom of League B Group 2, and have never beaten England in 12 previous meetings, suffering 10 defeats in that time.
