Finland 1, England 3
Jack Grealish, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Declan Rice all scored as England beat Finland in Helsinki to get their Nations League campaign back on track.
Embed from Getty ImagesEngland put their Wembley defeat at the hands of Greece behind them with a decent performance in Finland but defensive frailties remain.
Interim manager Lee Carsley made six changes to the side that lost last Thursday with Dean Henderson a rare outing in goal.
Kyle Walker and Marc Guehi were restored to the defence alongside John Stones while Trent Alexander-Arnold was deployed at left back with Angel Gomes coming into midfield and captain Harry Kane and Grealish went up front
Dropping out of the side were Pickford, Levi Colwill, Rico Lewis, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, and Phil Foden.
And a more conventional line up, including a striker in the shape of Kane, allowed England some more defensive cover.
Grealish opened the scoring after just 18 minutes when he picked his spot following a snappy pass from Angel Gomes following a move started by Alexander-Arnold.
Finland, who were yet to earn even a point in the current Nations League campaign, were unlucky not to be level after a decent first half showing but the visitors eventually doubled their lead when Alexander-Arnold curled in a picture perfect free kick to double their lead after 74 minutes to beat Lukas Hradecky from 25 yards.
Declan Rice made sure of victory in the 84th minute when Ollie Watkins set him up for a third England goal.
But doubts over England’s defending remain as Arttu Hoskonen replied three minutes later by creating a bit of space at a corner to head home a consolation for the Finns to deny Henderson a clean sheet in the England goal.
The victory means that England will likely need a win in Athens to have a chance of claiming promotion back to League A – Europe’s top table.