Old friends find new ways to torture Ireland at Wembley

Taylor Harwood-Bellis doesn’t have any Irish family that we know of, but he will when he marries his fiancée who is, of course, Roy Keane’s daughter Leah. Is there no end to the ways they torture us now?

HEAD-TO-HEAD: England's Jude Bellingham and Republic of Ireland's Jayson Molumby after the final whistle in the UEFA Nations League Group B2 match at Wembley Stadium. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.

The irony was lost on no-one back in September when Lee Carsley’s first game as England senior manager, in Dublin against a Republic of Ireland side he represented 40 times, was framed by two goals from old friends turned foes Declan Rice and Jack Grealish.

There is always scope for these shared threads in a fixture of interwoven loyalties and origins on both sides. That’s how it was again here in Wembley on Sunday evening when another Englishman with Irish blood took centre stage.