The lions roared loudly.
England hosted the Republic of Ireland in a must-win situation to secure promotion to League A next season. Throughout the first half, coach Lee Carsley and his team took the initiative, controlling up to 70% of the game, but were unable to break through their opponents' tightly organized defense.
However, the turning point of the match came in the 51st minute, when centre-back Liam Scales fouled star Jude Bellingham in the penalty area and received a second yellow card. On the 11m mark, Harry Kane made no mistake to break the deadlock in the match.
Two minutes later, taking advantage of the advantage of having one more player and the disorder of the Republic of Ireland defense, winger Anthony Gordon had a close-range finish to double the gap. The remaining three goals were scored by Conor Gallagher, Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Jay Harwood-Bellis.
England secured promotion to the Premier League next season with a thumping 5-0 home win. Coach Lee Carsley also ended his interim tenure by guiding the Three Lions back to the top tier of the Nations League.
France team shows its dominance
Although it was just a formality, the French team still wanted to win against their opponents Italy. 2 minutes after the opening whistle, Adrien Rabiot jumped high to head the opening score after a corner kick from Lucas Digne.
With 1 minute 59 seconds, Rabiot is the French player who scored the earliest goal for "The Goloa Roosters" away from home in an official tournament.
The most recent record belongs to Patrick Battiston in a 4-0 win at Luxembourg on 13 October 1984. This is also Italy's earliest home goal since 2008.
In the 33rd minute, Lucas Digne continued to leave his mark with a free kick from nearly 30m that sent the ball spiraling into the top corner, hitting the crossbar and hitting goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario into the net. The goal was counted as an own goal by goalkeeper Vicario.
Marseille midfielder Rabiot ended the day in fine form with a header to seal the win for France. Interspersed with the visitors' three goals was a goal from full-back Andrea Cambiaso.
France have won from three set-pieces in a single match for the first time since a three-goal win over Albania on 30 March 1991. This was also the first time Italy had lost by at least two goals in a competitive match since a 3-0 loss to Sweden in a Euro qualifier on 15 October 1983.
With this result, France has risen to the top of Group A2 with 13 points, equal to Italy but with a better goal difference. Both teams have secured tickets to the quarter-finals.
There are currently seven teams that have qualified for the group stage: Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Croatia. The quarter-finals will be played over two legs starting on 20 March 2025.
