Ireland vs England LIVE: Nations League team news and updates as Carsley era begins

With just over an hour until kick-off now, a reminder of how you can watch today’s match.

When is Republic of Ireland vs England?

Republic of Ireland vs England kicks off at 5pm BST on Saturday 7 September at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.

Viewers in the United Kingdom can watch the match live on ITV 1, with coverage starting at 4pm. Subscribers will also be able to watch via ITV X online and on the app.

Ahead of the line-ups being announced soon, here’s a rundown of all of England’s group-phase fixtures in the Nations League.

10 September – England vs Finland, Wembley Stadium

10 October – England vs Greece, Wembley Stadium

13 October – Finland vs England, Helsinki Olympic Stadium

14 November – Greece vs England, Athens Olympic Stadium

17 November – England vs Republic of Ireland, Wembley Stadium

Each team faces each other home and away in the group phase.

The League A winners and second-placed teams will enter home and away quarter-finals against each other. Victorious teams will take up the four spots in the finals, while fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B will be relegated. Those battling in League C have to work a little harder for safety with the two bottom-placed sides plummeting to League D.

On the flipside, all four winners from Leagues B and C will be automatically promoted, with the two League D winners also moving up. Further promotions will be decided via two-legged play-offs, between the third-ranked teams in League A and runners-up in League B, as well as the third-ranked teams in League B and runners-up in League C.

The two best ranked fourth-place teams in League C will meet the two runners-up from League D to decide who enters the next competition in the higher division.

England have dropped down to Nations League league ‘B’, the second tier of the League. They are in group B2, along with Greece, Finland and, of course, Ireland.

They face Finland at Wembley on Tuesday, while Ireland host Greece in Dublin.

The next round of fixtures takes place between 10 October and 15 October.

“I hope we will have the same result tomorrow, of course,” said Halgrimsson, referring to Iceland’s 2-1 win at Euro 2016.

“We were just speaking in the car on the way in – that night was special. Everything we did that night succeeded, whether it was tactical, taking our chances, defending our goal, and nothing England tried that night succeeded, so it was just one of those days.

““Hopefully it will come again tomorrow. But we know, even if we have our best game, it still isn’t sure it will lead into a victory against a good team like England.

“We need to make sure we have the best game we can tomorrow and see what that gives us,” he added.

“It’s a totally different team. The individual quality, the technical skills, the speed, of this team is much higher than the one we played.

“Also they are coming off from a good tournament and I would say the biggest difference is they have stayed together for two months now, and we have three days to prepare.

“That is going to be challenging as their routine is so drilled, whether it’s on the pitch or off the pitch. Coming from a good U21 campaign as well, they come on a high here, players playing Champions League day in, day out. It’s good individuals for sure we are facing.”

New Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson is hoping lightning strikes twice as he plots England’s downfall once again.

The 57-year-old was Iceland co-manager with Lars Lagerback when they masterminded a famous 2-1 last-16 victory over England at Euro 2016, in the process sending Roy Hodgson’s men to one of the lowest points in the country’s recent history.

A little more than eight years on, Hallgrimsson is looking to do much the same for Ireland in his first game since replacing Stephen Kenny at the helm when England head for the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

As well as that meeting at Italia ‘90, there have been plenty of other memorable matches between these two, some for all the wrong reasons.

Two years before the 1990 World Cup, the teams met at the 1988 European Championship, with Ireland winning 1-0 thanks to a Ray Houghton header. Charlton later remarked: “Somebody once said that fortune favours the brave, and God, our lads were brave this afternoon”.

A meeting at Lansdowne Road in 1995 is the most infamous fixture between the two, with the fixture abandoned after England fans caused riots having seen their side go 1-0 down in the opening 22 minutes.

England and Ireland have only met 17 times in the past, with the first match dating back to 1946. The Three Lions have won six of these matches, with Ireland winning two and nine ending as draws.

Perhaps the most notable meeting between the two came at the 1990 World Cup, when Bobby Robson’s side drew 1-1 to an Ireland team managed by English World Cup winner Jack Charlton in Group F.

The last meeting between the two came in November 2020, when England won 3-0 in a friendly at Wembley courtesy of goals from Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

For some around the Irish squad, it’s still strange to be preparing for a match against Lee Carsley’s England. Ireland made a strong push for the admired coach, since he has 40 caps for the country. A solid Ireland midfielder is now the most important figure in English football culture, and will have a tricolour by his name if he takes England to the World Cup.

Carsley was born in Birmingham but qualified for Ireland through his Cork grandmother, and spoke last week of naturally feeling both nationalities. The same applies to many for Saturday’s game in Dublin, most notably Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, who make up at least nine England regulars over the last half-decade that could have also represented Ireland. It is almost an inevitable inversion of the fixture’s history, when it was Ireland that most benefited from the country’s diaspora to Britain.

That history has been driven by one of the most complicated relationships in international football – at least on the Irish side. Among those complications are “800 years” of British occupation; a century of post-colonialism; decades of the English top flight serving as one of Ireland’s primary cultural influences as well as hundreds of players.

Republic of Ireland XI: Kelleher; O’Shea, Collins, Scales; Coleman, Smallbone, Brown, Brady; Parrott, Ferguson, Szmodics.

England XI: Pickford; Alexander-Arnold, Maguire, Stones, Livramento; Rice, Mainoo; Grealish, Eze, Saka; Kane.