Republic of Ireland vs England Preview

It’s a new era for the national teams of Ireland and England who will be playing their first game under new managers during their Nations League group-stage meeting at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Ireland is now managed by Heimir Hallgrímsson – the Icelandic coach who jointly managed his home nation when they famously eliminated England from Euro 2016. The 57-year-old former dentist has been tasked with turning Irish fortunes around after the nation has stagnated on the international stage.

Most of their wins across the last couple of years have come against the likes of Malta, Gibraltar, and Armenia (W6, D2, L10) so, things could yet get worse before they get better for Ireland who have failed to defeat England in any of the last seven meetings, albeit with six stalemates (L1).

Meanwhile, England will begin life after Gareth Southgate in Dublin. While Ireland went for an outsider, the Three Lions went searching for a solution internally, promoting successful England U21 man Lee Carsley to the senior setup.

Incidentally, Carsley’s first game is against the nation he represented 40 times as a player during his playing career. Even more intriguing is that the new Three Lions boss could have been lining up in the opposite dugout as he was also in talks with the Irish FA before Hallgrímsson’s appointment.

But having landed the coveted England job, Carsley will be hoping to improve England’s fortunes in this tournament as the Three Lions were demoted to League B after failing to win a game during their League A campaign of 2022/23 (D3, L3). That means they’ll have to wait until at least the next campaign to challenge for their first finals appearance since 2019.