As it happened - Nations League updates from Wembley: England v Republic of Ireland
England's Harry Kane scores the opener against Ireland at Wembley. Pic John Walton/PA Wire.
Richie Sadlier "not leaving here completely downbeat. "You can't excuse the second 45 minutes... but there was something there."
They are making Nathan accept the award on the pitch. He immediately apologises to Ireland fans. "That's not on," he says.
Nathan thought the England pen was soft.
"I feel bad for the fans. That second half isn't what they wanted."
All over. After first-half encouragement, it all unravelled with the Scales pen/red. The Scales tipped, the headlines will tell ya. "Heartening first half, humbling second," Des Curran sums up well. Ireland's heaviest defeat by England, Darragh Maloney tells us.
Bowen fires wide.
Three mins added. Plenty
Ah lads. Houghton is being required to pick an Ireland MOTM. Nathan Collins gets the nod. Don't make him accept it on the pitch.
Angel Gomes came on there at some point. Every time he plays, I google his height. Still 5'6.
Kasey McAteer is on for Szmodics. Ray is still lamenting that first-half pen. Caoimh saves from Kane.
We haven't lost 3 in a row to England, Ray Houghton says, until now, he means.
Yellow for Dara O'Shea now, for wearily knocking someone over.
Tuchel is hardly enjoying this, you'd think... England, with about 20 players missing, looking good.
God Save the King rings around Wembley. Isn't it great to be alive?
Surely I'll never be allowed do half a liveblog again, there's the silver lining.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis heads in his first for England. Just doing his job, his prospective father in law will prob tell him.
Be interesting to see how Heimir reacts to this one. Probably won't be the kind of evening to joke about not wanting half-time any more. Mitigating circumstances, but Ireland have collapsed after the pen/red double whammy.
Andrew Moran on for Ireland, for Josh Cullen.
First three more England subs. Bowen for Madueke, Solanke for Gallagher., Morgan Rodgers for Gordon. AHHHH Jarrod Bowen scores immediately.. 4-0. Crisp strike from edge of box after well-worked corner.
Bellingham brought down by O'Shea edge of the box. More danger here...
Kane is down looking for another pen. Gerrupouttadat
Lee Carsley appears to be eating lozenges on the line. Lemon flavour maybe. That's where we are now.
Kelleher saves from Madueke.
Ryan Manning is on for Festy. Some bookies this week had Manning down as the third sexiest footballer in Britain, as judged by AI. That might be as good as his week gets the way this is looking. Finn Azaz is on too, for O'Dowda, and Troy Parrott for Ferguson.
Festy is down, looking striken. Gallagher was just on for the third goal, the VAR belatedly tells us.
A bit of belief has gone, certainly, feels Ray Houghton. Do you reckon?
England are giving lads a game. Roy's future son-in-law Harwood-Bellis is on for Kyle Walker.
Caomhín walks around the area with the ball for an age. Would the ref notice if he did it for another half hour? Irish fans are still singing, at any rate.
3-0 The roof has caved in on Ireland. Conor Gallagher touches in at the back post from a corner. That's first England goals for Gallagher and Gordon. Any chance of a VAR reprieve? No.
It was an Evan Ferguson giveaway that triggered all of this, Ray Houghton points out. One loose touch has had a rather calamitous effect.
Sure enough... 2-0 Anthony Gordon volleys in at the back stick after Livramento got down the right and his cross pinballed off a couple of Irish defenders. I'm going to stop mentioning bad things that might happen now.
Nathan Collins abandons his experiment to slot back in as centre-half. Hopefully this doesn't get messy now.
Kane tucks it away, his 69th international goal. Feels cruel on Ireland, especially after the first half pen shouts. Nathan Collins argues the toss with the ref, but no arguments really about this decision. That early second half curse has struck again.
Disaster has struck. Penalty for England. Scales trips Bellingham after Harry Kane's through ball. Double disaster - Scales off on a second yellow.
Callum O'Dowda unimpressed with Madueke dancing on right flank. Watches the ball assiduously.
Ireland's newest tradition is conceding early in this 'third quarter' and England begin the half with intent.
Shay Given has been "really impressed" with the "Nathan Collins experiment", which sounds like a late night BBC2 music and chat show from the 80s. They are off again for the second half.
here now... RTÉ panel certain the first penalty shout for Evan Ferguson is 'stonewall'. Darragh Maloney's info is that the VAR official only gave it a cursory look. Didi says; "There's no two ways about it. Definitely a peno."
It all kicks off before the half-time whistle with Kane and Molumby clashing; the England skipper threw the Waterford man to the ground, before Walker tried to pick him up by the oxters. Kane and the Ireland midfielder are booked and the ref blows for half-time.
We'll have three minutes of stoppage time and England have a corner...
O'Dowda is chopped down by Livramento, who's booked - as is Bellingham for racing at the ref.
Cullen's delivery isn't great and the chance goes. Scales is booked minutes later.
This is a proper derby contest now and the Irish fans are making their presence felt.
Another Ireland penalty appeal is waved away!
Sammie Szmodics tries to get on the end of a diagonal ball but goes down in a tussle with Walker. The ref is not interested once again.
Liam Scales smashes into Kane in a very satisfactory 50-50, moments after good work in defence from Cullen.
After a break in play for a bit, Jude Bellingham gets a sight at goal but he swings a leg at it and it flies wide.
Festy does really well again, winning a tackle against Gordon on the byline.
Collins does well defensively once again, cutting out a dangerous ball drilled in by Gordon.
Great work once again from Festy Ebosele who gets Ireland up the pitch and looks to be tripped on the edge of the box but the ref indicates the tackle was fair.
Moments later, Ireland's players and fans appeal for a penalty as Marc Guehi appears to drag Evan Ferguson down by the shirt. VAR don't bother looking at it and Ray Houghton says he can't believe the spotter wasn't awarded.
Nice period of possession from Ireland, drawing Olés from the travelling support.
A second corner for England after good covering from Collins. Anthony Gordon fails to beat the first man, as we so often see, and his second effort is dealt with by Kelleher.
John Fallon sends us this snap that illustrates the formation:
First 'danger here' moment as Ireland are pressed into losing possession, Madueke jinks into the box, squares and it's cleared before Jones shoots. The subsequent corner is headed over by Walker.
After the pre-game chat about formations, it does indeed look like Nathan Collins is in midfield shadowing Jude Bellingham. Interesting.
We're underway and, as might be the case throughout this game, England are in possession.
The teams are on the pitch -- Ireland in their new 'hype' clobber -- and we'll have the anthems in the rain.
A bold statement from Tony Adams 👀 pic.twitter.com/tZJQxj8qou
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) November 17, 2024
Tony Adams has been interviewed on the pitch saying he would take a 1-0 win but he is predicting 3-0.
Sammie Szmodics speaks to RTÉ about stepping up to the Premier League level and making an impression with Ireland
Lee Carsley in his programme noted, written before their 3-0 win over Greece in Athens: "In my experience, November is the international window when you tend to get better performances because of the amount of time over the two months prior that you’ve had with the players, so we’ll go into both games this month with confidence.”
Wembley starting to fill now Irish section already in fine voice, Brendan tells us.
Jayson Molumby speaks to Tony O'Donoghue ahead of kick-off on the Wembley pitch.
We have the respective teamsheets and the Ireland side provides some talking points.
Luton Town centre-half Mark McGuinness is named to start while it looks like Nathan Collins steps into midfield.
Read more from John here.
: J Pickford; T Livramento, K Walker, M Guehi, L Hall; C Jones, C Gallagher; N Madueke, J Bellingham, A Gordon; H Kane.
: C Kelleher; D O'Shea, M McGuinness, N Collins, L Scales; J Cullen, J Molumby; F Ebosele, S Szmodics, C O'Dowda; E Ferguson.
: This is London calling. Good evening and welcome to our minute-minute coverage of Ireland's trip to Wembley in the Nations League.
John Fallon and Brendan O'Brien are in the stands in north London for us and will offer their perspective throughout.
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