So, the shock at Wembley for which we had hoped (perhaps against our better judgment) was not to be.
Now we wait for next Friday’s play-off draws. Ireland will be in the League B/C play-offs, so we’ll be drawn against one of the four League C runners-up.
They will be two-leg ties, the second of which Ireland will play at home. Uefa has said these games “in principle” will take place on March 20th and 23rd.
And with that I’ll sign off for the evening. Thanks for your company.
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson gave an honest interview to RTÉ after the game.
“[The] first half was like we wanted it. It’s easy to say you had a good first half [but] when you lose 5-0 there’s basically not a lot you can say.”
Asked if Liam Scales’ sending off was the issue, he replied: “We will never know that... I don’t know, it was 6/8 minutes of madness... Losing the ball is one thing, [not] reacting to it is another, and conceding a penalty, losing a player, so it was a lot of shock.
“1-0 down and in your face you get a second one, and I just felt we lost our heads at that moment. After that it was no way back I felt. We kind of just gave up. [It’s] easy to stand outside and criticise the players but it was kind of a crazy moment that killed everything, no only the game plan, but the momentum, the fight seemed to be take away from them.
“[There’s] hardly anything I can say now, but you try to pick the positives and the positive was the first half.”
Hallgrímsson said the challenge on Evan Ferguson “absolutely” should have went to VAR in his view, but added: “Complaining about some things when you lose 5-0, you shouldn’t do it.”
And on Scales’ second yellow, Heimir said: “I think it’s okay to give a penalty, but I[’d] never think this is a yellow card, the advantage is that you give them a penalty. I didn’t see the need to give a second yellow for this. But things like this happen, sadly for us it just totally changed the momentum of the game and from then on it was tough.”
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
Gavin Cummiskey’s report from London has landed.
“This is reality. England overwhelmed the Republic of Ireland’s initially brave resistance, scoring five second-half goals to secure promotion to League A in the Uefa Nations League.
“Some things remain the same for an Ireland team obsessed with conceding straight after half-time.”
Read his full report below.
[ Reality bites at Wembley as England dismantle 10-man Republic of IrelandOpens in new window ]
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
So Lee Carsley ends his time as England’s interim manager with an emphatic win. Over to you Tuchel.
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
In the evening’s other group fixture, Greece have beaten Finland 2-0 in Helsinki.
Anastasios Bakasetas opened the scoring for the visitors after 52 minutes, followed closely by a goal from Christos Tzolis.
The two results do nothing to change the table standings. England stay on top, seeing them up to League A for next season, while Greece will go to the play-offs to try to join them.
Ireland will battle to stay in League B, facing a two-leg play-off against a second-placed team from League C, while poor old Finland go straight down to the third tier.
The draws for those play-off fixtures will take place next week.
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
We have the final whistle at Wembley Stadium.
A disappointing second half considering how well Ireland had done before the break.
Liam Scales’ sending off was of course the turning point. It was pretty much all downhill from there.
90 MINS: Three minutes added on at Wembley. Jude Bellingham looks like he wants to finish the evening with a goal of his own.
ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
88 MINS: The Irish fans are going to sing to the end. Sammie Szmodics takes his leave to make room for Kasey McAteer.
ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
80 MINS: GOAL FOR ENGLAND.
Jude Bellingham slows it right down to pick out the pass to substitute Taylor Harwood-Bellis. He gets up to head the ball into the bottom right corner.
ENGLAND 5 REP OF IRELAND 0
79 MINS: Angel Gomes comes on in place of Curtis Jones for England.
ENGLAND 4 REP OF IRELAND 0
77 MINS: Change for Ireland. Josh Cullen is replaced by Andrew Moran.
ENGLAND 4 REP OF IRELAND 0
76 MINS: GOAL FOR ENGLAND.
Substitute Jarrod Bowen makes it four for England with his first touch of the game.
ENGLAND 4 REP OF IRELAND 0
75 MINS: England make three changes.
Morgan Rogers on for Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen on for Noni Madueke, and Dominic Solanke on for Conor Gallagher.
ENGLAND 3 REP OF IRELAND 0
70 MINS: Harry Kane plays the pass to Noni Madueke but he’s too close to the endline to make it count.
England utterly in control now.
Bellingham later spots a gap in front of goal but Mark McGuinness puts a stop to him.
ENGLAND 3 REP OF IRELAND 0
66 MINS: Heimir follows Carsley’s lead and makes three changes.
Ryan Manning comes on in place of Festy Ebosele, Finn Azaz replaces Callum O’Dowda, and Evan Ferguson makes way for Troy Parrott.
ENGLAND 3 REP OF IRELAND 0
62 MINS: Three goals to the good and Lee Carsley opts to go to his bench.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis comes on to make his senior debut replacing Kyle Walker.
ENGLAND 3 REP OF IRELAND 0
58 MINS: GOAL FOR ENGLAND.
The Irish defence has really come undone. A corner finds Marc Guéhi who heads it to the oncoming Conor Gallagher.
ENGLAND 3 REP OF IRELAND 0
56 MINS: GOAL FOR ENGLAND.
Tino Livramento departs a perfect cross into the box where Anthony Gordon’s volley is enough to beat Caoimhín Kelleher.
ENGLAND 2 REP OF IRELAND 0
53 MINS: GOAL FOR ENGLAND. Harry Kane finds the net from the penalty spot to put his side ahead.
ENGLAND 1 REP OF IRELAND 0
51 MINS: Penalty for England!
Liam Scales picks up a second yellow for seeing Jude Bellingham to ground. Ireland are down to 10.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
46 MINS: Back under way at Wembley.
The home crowd treat us to a rendition of God Save the King as play resumes. Not really much of a game song but each to their own.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
Of the evening’s managers, you’d imagine Heimir Hallgrímsson is the happier of the two at the break.
But another 45 minutes to go at Wembley. We shall endeavour not to get ahead of ourselves.
HT: ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
And that’s half-time.
A bit of handbags before the break sees yellow cards for England captain Harry Kane and Ireland’s Jayson Molumby. They were involved in a bit of a scuffle that ended with Molumby hitting the deck.
Thankfully Kyle Walker was there to (rather unceremoniously) hoist him back to his feet. That didn’t go down well either.
HT: ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
43 MINS: Liam Scales joins Bellingham and Madueke in the referee’s black book.
A decent shot from Festy Ebosele is easily dealt with by Jordan Pickford, who has had a pretty uneventful evening so far.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
42 MINS: Yellow card for Noni Madueke for a challenge on Callum O’Dowda and it’s a free for Ireland.
Jude Bellingham also picks up a card for his failed attempt at advocacy.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
40 MINS: The travelling supporters are getting the chants going in the stands. Come On You Boys In Green gets going to try carry the team to the break.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
36 MINS: Sammie Szmodics goes down in the box but no penalty comes.
There’s pace in England’s counterattack, but Jayson Molumby does well to take possession.
Ireland play it out nicely and we’re back on the attack.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
30 MINS: Jude Bellingham continues to lead England’s charge up front. He finds the end of a pass on the edge of the box but the angle and pace is took much even for his magic touch.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
28 MINS: Nathan Collins again with a vital block to deny England. The captain is leading by example thus far.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
22 MINS: Evan Ferguson is hard done by not to draw a free from a contest with Marc Guéhi.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
19 MINS: Debutant Mark McGuinness puts in a inch-perfect slide tackle on Jude Bellingham.
They may be feeling the pressure, but Ireland’s defence is putting in a good shift.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
16 MINS: Ireland getting a bit more possession now but in contrast to England the visitors look a tad more frantic on the ball.
England slowing play right down in the midfield.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
13 MINS: Bellingham is making his presence known, but Ireland’s defence is holding firm. This time Liam Scales sees an end to the Real Madrid player’s effort.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
9 MINS: Nathan Collins gets back to herald a cross from Jude Bellingham to safety.
Anthony Gordon sends a weak corner in but Collins’ clearance finds its way back to the Newcastle player.
Caoimhín Kelleher makes light work of managing the attempt on goal.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
6 MINS: England holding possession to ease themselves into the game.
Noni Madueke makes the shot but it’s saved. Curtis Jones gets on the end of the clearance but his shot is deflected wide.
From the corner, Kyle Walker gets a head to it but it sails over the crossbar.
Early pressure from the home side.
ENGLAND 0 REP OF IRELAND 0
And we’re under way at Wembley Stadium.
The teams are out for the anthems. Announcement of Amhrán na bhFiann seems to draw a dull boo from the crowd.
Neither anthem is paid much respect from the crowd.
This is your 20-mintue warning. Kick-off at Wembley is at 5pm.
The game is being televised live on RTÉ2.
And the hosts..
ENGLAND: Jordan Pickford, Kyle Walker, Conor Gallagher, Marc Guéhi, Harry Kane (capt), Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon, Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, Curtis Jones, Noni Madueke.
Replacements: Dean Henderson, James Trafford, Rico Lewis, Morgan Gibbs-White, Angel Gomes, Jarell Quansah, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Jarrod Bowen, Dominic Solanke.
And here’s our starting XI..
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Caoimhín Kelleher, Callum O’Dowda, Dara O’Shea, Liam Scales, Josh Cullen, Sammie Szmodics, Jayson Molumby, Evan Ferguson, Mark McGuinness, Festy Ebosele, Nathan Collins (Capt).
Replacements: Mark Travers, Max O’Leary, Matt Doherty, Ryan Manning, Jake O’Brien, Andrew Moran, Conor Coventry, Finn Azaz, Kasey McAteer, Michael Johnston, Troy Parrott, Tom Cannon.
As for what will come after this evening’s game, the result at Wembley doesn’t really matter to us (except, of course, on a point of pride).
Given our six-point gap to fourth-placed Finland, we’re going to stay right where we are in third. That will put us into next year’s relegation/promotion play-offs, in which we’ll play a group runner-up from League C.
But there is something at stake for England. If they top our group they’ll gain automatic promotion to League A next season, whereas the runner-up will go into a play-off against a third-place finisher from the top flight.
What had our two managers to say for themselves before the game?
Heimir said he feels better prepared this time out having got to know his players that little bit better.
“Maybe I was naive in September, not having done any work with the players prior.
“We’ve had September, October and now November camps, I’m lucky in that sense, the time between camps has been short and we’ve been able to use similar players from camp to camp, so I feel more confident in how we should play against England and I am pretty sure we will be more, how would you say, mature in the way we do things against England than we did against Finland.”
[ ‘Heimir Ball’ needs Ireland to be comfortable out of possessionOpens in new window ]
In the other dugout, Lee Carsley said his focus is “getting the job done” before he hands the keys over to Thomas Tuchel.
“[We’re] fully respectful of Ireland and the strengths that they have, so we have to make sure that we approach the game properly,” said Carsley, who was capped 40 times with the Republic of Ireland as a player.
No confirmation of the starting teams just yet, we’ll let you know when they land.
Yesterday, Gavin Cummiskey had news that Conor Coventry had joined the Republic of Ireland squad for a training session at Abbotstown ahead of their journey to London, coming in for Jason Knight.
Previewing this evening’s game, Gavin writes: “It would be unwise to expect anything other than a clinical English display as victory secures automatic promotion to Nations League A.”
Oh well. Read Gavin’s full preview below:
[ Clinical England strong favourites to sweep Ireland aside at WembleyOpens in new window ]
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The Irish Times live blog for the Uefa Nations League fixture between England and the Republic of Ireland (kick-off at 5pm). Muireann Duffy here to take you through the day’s action.
Heimir Hallgrímsson & Co are at Wembley Stadium in London for this second leg matchup. England’s trip to Dublin back in September ended in a 2-0 win for the visitors – the goals coming from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish and the irony of which still hasn’t worn off.
England currently sit top of the League B Group 2 table, level with Greece on 12 points but ahead on goal difference.
England’s only loss of this campaign so far came at the hands of the Greeks back in October, when Ivan Jovanović's men took a shock 2-1 win at Wembley. However, England exacted their revenge on Thursday, winning the return leg 3-0.
Meanwhile, Ireland sit third, taking two wins (both against Finland) from their five games played. The latest of those victories was at the Aviva on Thursday, when Evan Ferguson’s 45th-minute strike saw Ireland over the line.
This evening’s game marks Lee Carsley’s last outing as interim manager of the Three Lions, as he’ll make way for the arrival of their new boss, Thomas Tuchel.
