England, Germany impress in Nations League

Dusseldorf: England began life after Gareth Southgate in convincing fashion on Saturday, outclassing Ireland 2-0 in the Nations League with goals from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish giving interim manager Lee Carsley a debut win.

Carsley, who will oversee two games this month with a view to staying on through the autumn, represented Ireland as a player and it was the two of his team with Irish links - Rice and Grealish - who gave England an early lead that was never remotely under threat.

Rice played three games for Ireland before switching to the country of his birth, while Grealish played at under-age level for England's near neighbour, who were also playing under new manager Heimir Hallgrimsson for the first time.

Nothing less than a convincing win over a nation ranked 54 places below them would do for Carsley to boost his credentials for the full-time role and the former England Under-21 coach stuck with Southgate's stalwarts for his first outing.

The visitors, playing in the competition's second-tier for the first time, took the lead moments after Ireland's Sammie Szmodics forced Jordan Pickford into a smart save, with Anthony Gordon wasting a one-on-one before Rice stroked the ball soundly into the top corner.

The Arsenal midfielder, booed by the home fans throughout, opted not to celebrate his fourth England goal. Grealish showed no such restraint 15 minutes later when he tucked away a Rice cutback after some tidy English passing easily cut Ireland open.

England's 352 completed first-half passes to Ireland's 50-odd highlighted the gulf between the side and left Hallgrimsson in little doubt that there would be no repeat of his memorable Euro 2016 win over England while in charge of Iceland.

England took their foot off the accelerator in the second half and Ireland finally showed some signs of life on the hour with the lively Ipswich attacker Szmodics flashing a shot just wide.

That was as close as the hosts got and England, who gave late debuts to Angel Gomes and Morgan Gibbs-White, should have added at least a third goal while seeing the game out at a comfortable pace.

Jamal Musiala scored once and set up three more goals as Germanycrushed visitors Hungary 5-0 in a winning start to the Nations League competition.

New-look Germany, who have set their sights on the 2026 World Cup after their quarter-final run at the Euro on home soil in July, no longer have any 2014 World Cup winners in the squad following the international retirements of Thomas Mueller, Toni Kroos and Manuel Neuer.

Former captain Ilkay Gundogan also ended his international career.

They took the lead in their Group A3 encounter with Niclas Fuellkrug's tap-in from midfielder Musiala assist following a good passing combination in the 27th minute.

Germany, who play Netherlands on Tuesday and also face Bosnia in their group, should have added at least one more goal with Kai Havertz hitting the crossbar with a header in the 33rd and then firing narrowly wide in first half stoppage time.

With Hungary pushing for an equalizer, Musiala struck on the break in the 58th, completing a quick counter-attack from a visitors' corner.

Florian Wirtz then drilled in their third after a one-two with Musiala in the 66th before Havertz hit the woodwork once more.

Man-of-the-match Musiala then sent through Aleksandar Pavlovic in the 77th to slot in.

Havertz still had time to get onto the scoresheet himself with an 81st minute penalty.

The Netherlands endured some nervy moments but in the end proved too strong for Bosnia as they began their Nations League campaign with a 5-2 triumph at the Philips Stadion. Agencies

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