Your support helps us to tell the story
The second goal was, apparently, pure Cars-Ball: a surging run from Declan Rice, a clever pass from Kobbie Mainoo, a swift one-two with Bukayo Saka, a sharp cut-back to the edge of the box to set up a clinical finish by Jack Grealish into the bottom corner. In five passes, Ireland were cut apart. On the touchline, in his England tracksuit, Lee Carsley took a quick sip from a plastic water bottle. This was the crystallisation of his plan, his vision, the start of England’s brave new era: the dawn of Cars-Ball, which in the space of a week had become a byword for change, a symbol of hope, a way of moving forward into a bold future.
