England vs Greece LIVE: Nations League updates with Palmer beginning

7 mins: Oh hello!

Konstantinos Koulierakis clatters into Jude Bellingham who beats him to a loose ball. He takes out the midfielder over to the right side of the pitch just outside the box.

The defender is shown a yellow card and will miss the next match.

Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold stand over the ball. It’s Palmer who strikes the effort and lands the ball just on the roof of the net.

Decent effort.

5 mins: Close!

England get caught on the break after Bellingham loses possession. Greece sweep forward quickly and work the ball up to Vangelis Pavlidis.

The forward checks to the right and curls a shot towards the far bottom corner. He strikes it well but Jordan Pickford isn’t interested and watches the ball go wide.

3 mins: Rico Lewis releases Jude Bellingham down the left side of the pitch and the Real Madrid star attempts to drive into the box. He loses possession but it comes out to Anthony Gordon who rolls a pass over to Cole Palmer.

Palmer looks to shoot first time but fumbles the ball.

It comes back across to Bellingham who spins and rattles a shot at goal that Odysseus Vlachodimos leaps to his left to push wide of the post.

“For a game that isn’t maybe the most momentous, there is some discussion here at Wembley over whether Lee Carsley’s line-up is the most revolutionary England have ever had.

“It is certainly a historic landmark.

“It might just be the first time that England have started a game without a traditional striker or number-nine. That may not be so remarkable in the context of the modern game, but it is for the national team. England have just always had a nine, and not simply in terms of tactics.

“There’s always been that defined front man. Is Harry Kane the last one in that sense, potentially the end of a lineage that goes through Jimmy Greaves and Geoff Hurst to Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer?

“His place was taken here by Jude Bellingham, who started as a false nine – although a connected question: at what point does a false nine just become… a nine.

“The game will tell. This low-key historic moment may be the future.”

There is a period of silence before the start of this Nations League match in memory of George Baldock who passed away in Athens yesterday at the age of 31.

England then get the ball rolling.

England captain Harry Kane has scored 26 goals in 26 competitive home appearances for the Three Lions, scoring on each of his last six such outings (nine goals) – only Steve Bloomer (1895-1899) and Wayne Rooney (2012-2015) have ever scored in seven straight competitive home games for the nation.

Kane has had a hand in 28 goals in his last 28 appearances at Wembley Stadium for England (25 goals, three assists), netting 14 goals in his last 14 games at the ground.

Here come the players.

John Stones is the England captain for the evening and will partner Levi Colwill in central defence against the Greeks. Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka are all in the starting line-up and this promises to be a free flowing attacking game.

Will it work?

We’re about to find out…

With Lee Carsley opting to start Cole Palmer in an attacking midfield role for England’s Nations League encounter with Greece, much attention was quickly about how to get the best out of the Three Lions side with him involved – and why he could be such an important player.

But it’s only the start of a journey which must make him a massive part of the plans, be it with Carlsey in charge on a permanent basis or not. That’s the opinion of former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, who singled out Palmer’s mindset and technical qualities as the keys to making him such an impressive performer.

“I definitely won’t be saying anything like that again!”

Carsley then went on an instructive explanation of one vision for the position – “not like a traditional Ashley Cole kind of thing” – which touched on a far bigger discussion over the forward.

This will be England’s 21st game overall in the Nations League (currently P20 W7 D6 L7), while they have the chance to win three successive matches in the competition for the first time, following wins against Ireland and Finland.

England haven’t lost any of their last 17 competitive matches at Wembley (W13 D4) since a 0-1 loss to Denmark in this competition back in October 2020.

The Three Lions have lost just two of their last 23 competitive matches overall (W14 D7), with those defeats coming against France at the quarter-final stage of the 2022 Fifa World Cup and against Spain in the final at Euro 2024.