Lee Carsley vows to pay Ireland 'respect' at Wembley

Interim boss Lee Carsley says celebrations are on ice as England look to follow up their impressive win in Greece by sealing promotion back to the Nations League top tier by beating the Republic of Ireland.

Sunday's match at Wembley is the 17th and final game of a hectic year that has seen England reach a second final in three tournaments and just the third in the history of the men's side.

Defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 showpiece heralded the exit of Gareth Southgate, whose permanent successor Thomas Tuchel looks set to take over on the back of Nations League promotion.

Carsley's side made amends for last month's humiliating 2-1 home loss to Greece by winning the reverse fixture 3-0 in Athens, meaning victory against the Boys in Green in his final match will see them go up.

"I think we've shown in the past that we've got so many quality players," the interim boss said after Ollie Watkins opened the scoring having surprisingly got the nod ahead of captain Harry Kane.

"I suppose the biggest challenge would be fitting them all in and where do they all play?

"We've played with that balance, we've got so much quality. Players come in and out of form as well, so I think you have to take that into account.

"But I think there's a lot of good performances tonight, real good team effort and hopefully we'll see the same at Wembley."

Watkins' opener was followed in the second half by Jude Bellingham forcing Odysseas Vlachodimos into an own goal and debutant Curtis Jones scoring a fantastic flick, setting things up nicely for Sunday.

"I think we've put ourselves in a better position than we were before the game, but (we are) in no means celebrating at this point," Carsley said ahead of his final match as interim boss.

"It's important that