Rice and Grealish give England comfortable win over Ireland

The Republic of Ireland have lost 2-0 to England in their Nations League game in Dublin.

Declan Rice, who played friendly internationals for the Boys in Green at senior level before switching allegiance - opened the scoring after 11 minutes for the visitors.

Then in the 26th minute - ex-Irish underage international Jack Grealish added the second goal for England.

And that was enough for Lee Carsley's side, who enjoyed over 70 percent possession in the contest.

For Heimir Hallgrímsson, it was a difficult start and he will hope for better luck on Tuesday night as Greece are the visitors to the Aviva Stadium.

England impressed in their first match since losing July’s Euro 2024 final, with Rice and Grealish setting Carsley on course for an impressive 2-0 win over the nation he played for 40 times as a player.

The interim boss stayed silent during ‘God Save the King’, just as he had indicated he would before the match against the country his goalscorers previously represented.

Rice won three senior caps for the Republic and fired England into an early lead, which former Ireland Under-21 international Grealish added to during a one-sided first half.

“Two nil to the Irish boys” sung visiting fans on an afternoon when Hallgrimsson’s hosts never looked like getting back into it as Carsley enjoyed a winning start to life in the Nations League second tier.

There was a crackling atmosphere before kick-off at the Aviva Stadium, where England’s interim boss accidentally took a seat in the wrong dugout before kick-off.

Irish fans ferociously booed a rendition of ‘God Save the King’, punctuated by cries of “no surrender” from some travelling supporters, before they bellowed out their own anthem.

Rice and Grealish felt the heat from the