UEFA Nations League Preview: England -v- Republic of Ireland

Macdara Ferris reports from Wembley Stadium

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Welcome to the Hotel League B at Wembley this weekend as for Ireland ‘you can check out any time you like but you can never leave’ League B.

While England want a win on Sunday to secure promotion out of League B (kick-off 5pm), a league Heimir Hallgrímsson’s says "they don't belong in", Ireland’s seemingly permanent status in League B of the UEFA Nations League was secured during week with the 1-0 victory for the Boys in Green over Finland on Thursday. 

The back-to-back wins over Finland ensured that Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team will finish third in the group and now face into a relegation play-off next March to remain in League B.

The opposition will be drawn from a likely pool containing Slovakia/Sweden, Kosovo, Northern Ireland/Bulgaria/Belarus, Faroe Islands/Armenia/Latvia and the hope is that the Boys in Green will remain in League B next time around.

Speaking in Wembley on the eve of the game, Heimir Hallgrímsson said that while his team will always look to win the game there was a “little relief knowing were not playing for a league position. The pressure is on England who need to win game to win the group.

"Obviously they don’t belong in Group B, of course they would like to be in Group A as one of the best teams in the world.”

He also spoke about the challenge of facing Harry Kane who will return to England’s starting line up. “We kind of expected him to play this game because he played less in previous one. We need to be aware of him.

"He plays in certain way. He likes to linkup and come deep. He is a little bit different striker than the others.”

With Jason Knight’s early yellow card against Finland meaning he is suspended, Conor Coventry has been drafted into the squad. The Charlton midfielder trained in Dublin on Saturday morning with the full Ireland squad before the Irish party flew to the English capital in the afternoon.

The squad had a walk on the pitch in Wembley just ahead of the pre-match press conference early on Saturday evening.

World Cup campaign

The results in this campaign mean that Ireland will be third seeds for World Cup qualification and this most likely will mean a four-team qualifying group.

If so, those qualifiers will run across September, October and November in 2025 and, not being part of a five-team group, mean avoiding June qualifiers when a large part of the Ireland squad are out of season by a month.

Looking ahead to that World Cup draw (due to take place in Zurich on 13 December), there are a dozen qualification groups with each group winner automatically qualifying for the FIFA 2026 World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico.

The complicated play-off route (is there any other kind?) involves 16 teams – the 12 runners-up from the qualifing group and the four best Nations League group winners who finished outside the top two in their groups.

The 16 teams will be drawn into four paths with two rounds of single-match play-offs. The semi-final play-offs will be seeded with the seeded teams hosting the semi-final but the home team for the final play-off will be assigned via a draw.

The four path winners will then progress to the World Cup.

Ireland (possible): Kelleher; Doherty, Collins ©, Scales, O’Dowda; Ebosele, Cullen, Molumby, Johnston; Ferguson, Szmodics.

Republic Of Ireland Squad

Goalkeepers: Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool), Mark Travers (AFC Bournemouth), Max O'Leary (Bristol City)

Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Dara O'Shea (Ipswich Town), Nathan Collins (Brentford), Shane Duffy (Norwich City), Mark McGuinness (Luton Town), Liam Scales (Celtic), Callum O'Dowda (Cardiff City).

Midfielders: Conor Coventry (Charlton Athletic), Josh Cullen (Burnley), Jayson Molumby (West Bromwich Albion), Finn Azaz (Middlesbrough), Andy Moran (Stoke City, on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion).

Forwards: Adam Idah (Celtic), Evan Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion), Tom Cannon (Stoke City, on loan from Leicester City), Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Festy Ebosele (Watford, on loan from Udinese), Kasey McAteer (Leicester City), Sammie Szmodics (Ipswich Town), Mikey Johnston (West Bromwich Albion).

ENGLAND

Interim-boss Lee Carsley will look to close out his time in charge of England with a win over Ireland at Wembley, a victory that would see the Three Lions return to the top tier of the UEFA Nations League.

As the Irishman exits the English dugout, with German manager Thomas Tuchel next to take up the role, Ireland aren’t expected to prevent England’s promotion to League A.

The Three Lions won handily enough in Dublin earlier in the campaign with, from an Irish perspective, pantomime villains Declan Rice and Jack Grealish getting on the scoresheet.

Neither of those players are available – with England having an extensive injury list - but there remains Irish interest wearing the white home kit with skipper Harry Kane, whose family hail from Letterfrack in Galway, returning to the side and Irish passport holder Jude Bellingham set to start as well.

Carsley insisted that he didn’t drop his skipper for his team’s 3-1 away win in Greece and has said that Kane will start on Sunday evening. “It wasn’t a case of being dropped, far from it, it was a just a case of giving someone an opportunity,” said Carsley this week.

That someone he brought in was Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins who scored the opener in the 3-0 away win in Greece earlier this week. “Ollie is playing in the Champions League and he’s doing really well.”

The former Ireland international has had to bring a number of players into his England squad who he managed at under-21 level to deal with the sizable drop outs from his squad due to injury.

His team coped admirably in Greece last Thursday but England’s 2-1 loss against the same opponent last month was a painful one and they won’t want to lose two home games in a row when they face Ireland this weekend.

England (possible): Pickford; Walker, Guehi, Konsa, Hall; Jones, Gallagher; Madueke, Bellingham, Gordon; Kane ©

England squad

Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Marc Guéhi (Crystal Palace), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Rico Lewis (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Conor Gallagher (Atletico Madrid), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Angel Gomes (Lille), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal)

Forwards: Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)

Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium)

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— extratime.com (@extratime.bsky.social) 16 November 2024 at 12:20

MATCH STATS

The teams have met on 17 occasions with the Three Lions winning seven times. Ireland have two wins but have never won a match at Wembley. The goal count is 25 to 14 in favour of England. 

England are looking to make it three wins in a row over Ireland for the very first time. They are unbeaten in their last 41 matches in all competitions when going a goal ahead. Ireland’s win in Finland earlier in the campaign was their first come from behind victory in a dozen years.

Ireland’s 2-0 win at Goodison Park in 1949 was the first time England lost at home to a non-British team. The only other victory for the Boys in Green against England is of course the 1-0 win at EURO88. The last competitive game between the sides was a 1-1 draw in March 1991 when Niall Quinn’s Wembley goal cancelled out Lee Dixon’s opener.

England’s largest winning margin over Ireland came in a 5-1 victory in a European qualifier in 1957 – that was in the sides’ very first Wembley encounter. When Ireland last visited the historic stadium, they lost 3-0 in a behind-closed-doors covid game in November 2020. In May 2013, the sides played out a 1-1 draw in a friendly at Wembley.

Ireland’s win in Helsinki in this UEFA Nations League campaign was their first victory away from home in their ten matches played in this competition – the remaining results were three draws and six defeats. 

PREDICTION
3-1 home win

England

Injured: Ramsdale, Colwill, Stones, Alexander-Arnold, Shaw, Rice, Mainoo, Palmer, Foden Grealish, Saka 

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

Republic of Ireland

Injured: Gavin Bazunu, Robbie Brady, Alan Browne, Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, Adam Idah, Jamie McGrath, Andrew Omobamidele, Chiedozie Ogbene, Will Smallbone, Jack Taylor. 

Doubtful: None

Suspended: Jason Knight

Shelbourne confirm three player exits - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/w9M3icSPtl

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) November 16, 2024