England secured promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League with a 5-0 romp over 10-man Ireland in interim manager Lee Carsley’s last game in charge at Wembley on Sunday.

After a turgid first half, Harry Kane’s penalty, Anthony Gordon’s volley and a tap-in by Conor Gallagher in the space of five minutes at the start of the second broke Ireland’s resolve.

Jarrod Bowen made it 4-0 with a crisp shot from the edge of the area, his first touch after coming off the bench, before debutant Taylor Harwood-Bellis headed England’s fifth.

Ireland played virtually the whole of the second half with 10 men after Liam Scales was sent off for a foul on Jude Bellingham that resulted in England’s penalty.

England finished top of Group B2 with 15 points from six games, the same as Greece but with a superior goal difference in the two games between the two nations.

Carsley will now hand over the reins to Thomas Tuchel having won five of his six games in charge and with some useful pointers for the German who takes charge in January.

While it was no surprise to see Kane on the scoresheet for his 69th England goal, England’s four other scorers all notched their first senior international goals.

Carsley also gave first starts to Newcastle United full backs Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall while Southampton’s Harwood-Bellis celebrated his first cap with a goal.

England gave a large Sunday evening crowd nothing to get excited about in a tedious first half in which neither side managed a single effort on target.

But the floodgates opened when Kane’s superb pass found Jude Bellingham in the area and as he tried to cut inside Scales, the Celtic defender hacked him down to concede a penalty and earn himself a second yellow card and Kane tucked away the spot kick.

Ireland then collapsed. Gordon steered in a volley to double the home side’s advantage and Gallagher prodded in after a corner was flicked on.

Bowen and Harwood-Bellis then put the icing on the cake

-Reuters

Portugal sealed a Nations League quarter-final berth after a Cristiano Ronaldo double with a penalty and an overhead kick helped them hammer visiting Poland 5-1 in Group A1 on Friday.

Rafael Leao broke the deadlock just before the hour with a header before Ronaldo doubled the lead from the spot in the 72nd minute with a confident strike down the middle of the goal.

The hosts then scored three goals in eight minutes through Bruno Fernandes, Pedro Neto and Ronaldo’s clever strike before Dominik Marczuk got a consolation for Poland in the 88th.

“The first half was very bad for what we wanted to do, we lost focus and got frustrated. But the second half was the best I’ve seen,” said Portugal coach Roberto Martinez.

“We’ve changed the mentality and increased the intensity and mutual support. We didn’t let Poland play.”

Unbeaten Portugal top the group with 13 points, six ahead of Croatia, who lost 1-0 away to a Scotland side who are still bottom but now level on four points with third-placed Poland.

Poland host Scotland on the final matchday on Monday when Portugal travel to Croatia.

Portugal, who snapped Poland’s two-year unbeaten home run when they won the reverse fixture in Warsaw 3-1 last month, had trouble taming the visitors in the first half.

Poland were without their all-time top scorer Robert Lewandowski, who is sidelined with a back injury, but were quick to create danger and had three attempts on target before the break compared to none by the hosts.

Bartosz Bereszynski was close to opening the scoring in the 12th minute but Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa was in the right spot to catch his header before he had to stretch to deny Krzysztof Zalewski’s powerful shot from the edge of the box.

Both Leao and Ronaldo sent good chances above the bar just before the break before the tables turned for Portugal after the restart.

Clearly fired up, the hosts dominated possession and Leao recovered the ball inside their own box before he raced through the pitch to find Nuno Mendes on the left flank who then set the forward up with a perfect lofted pass.

Portugal were then awarded a penalty for a handball, expertly converted by Ronaldo, as they continued growing in strength and Fernandes struck from a distance to make it 3-0 when the ball bounced in off the inside of the bar.

Neto added another one in the 83rd minute, scoring inside the near post, before Ronaldo netted his 135th goal for the national side with an acrobatic finish in the 87th.

Distraught Poland pulled a late goal back through halftime substitute Marczuk, who scored his first international goal.

The 2019 winners Portugal, who dropped their first points last time out when they were held to a goalless draw in Scotland on Oct. 15, secured a fourth successive top-two finish in the competition.

-Reuters

Italy great Paolo Maldini’s son Daniel made his debut for the Azzurri in Monday’s 4-1 win over Israel, marking the first time three generations of a family have played for the country’s national team.

Former AC Milan defender Paolo Maldini earned 126 caps while Cesare Maldini, Daniel’s grandfather, played his last game for Italy 61 years ago.

Paolo Maldini attended the Nations League match in Udine and saw his son come on as a 74th-minute substitute.

“I’m happy that my parents came here, we’ll talk when I get home,” 23-year-old Monza forward Daniel Maldini said after the match.

“It was a strong, positive emotion, I am very happy to have played and that the match went well … I hope to bring some quality, even if there is already too much, I try to help as much as I can.”

Italy, who are top of their group with 10 points from four matches, visit Belgium and host France next month.

-Reuters