Greece score last-gasp goal to claim historic win over England
Lee Carsley’s latest audition for the permanent England managerial position involved an exciting, strikerless, free-flowing attack that looked to wreak havoc on the Greece defence early on.
Bellingham gave Odysseas Vlachodimos a warning with a whipped shot inside three minutes, before Cole Palmer – making his first competitive start for his country – placed a powerful free-kick just over the bar.
However, the Three Lions had seemingly traded their defensive stability for that extra attacking threat, and an array of mistakes afforded the visitors a promising spell.
Jordan Pickford ventured well outside his area before bizarrely passing straight to Anastasios Bakasetas, whose lobbed attempt was brilliantly cleared off the line by Levi Colwill.
Konstantinos Mavropanos was then ruled offside after outjumping Pickford to head into the net, before an effort from Bakasetas was blocked by John Stones’ trailing leg.
Still, two clear chances went begging for England before the break, including Palmer’s skied effort and an Anthony Gordon header which failed to match the quality of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ball to find him.
The hosts paid for that wastefulness just minutes after the restart, as Dinos Koulierakis stormed forward and Vangelis Pavlidis worked his way past seemingly countless England defenders to slot past Pickford.
The celebrations for that first-ever Greece goal at Wembley were filled with emotion, and the away side continued in the same vein as Pavlidis netted again, but an offside infringement saw it ruled out.
The introduction of Ollie Watkins saw England return to a more familiar set-up, and it almost yielded an equaliser when the Aston Villa striker thumped over just a few minutes later.
With only the group’s first-placed team promoted automatically to League A, England knew they could ill afford to lose to the leaders, and a familiar hero stepped up to level the score.
Dominic Solanke pulled it back to the edge of the area, where Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham came steaming in to unleash a powerful, low drive which had the beating of Vlachodimos.
However, there was a further twist deep into stoppage time as England were swarmed by Greece attackers in the area, and Pavlidis remarkably fired in the winner to cap off a famous night in the English capital.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Vangelis Pavlidis (Greece)
