England are going up! Winners & losers as Lee Carsley leads Three Lions to Nations League promotion & sets Thomas Tuchel era up for World Cup success
The die-hard fans of the England men's national team, with their brass band and Wembley paper aeroplanes, will hardly be telling their grandkids about the great UEFA Nations League B Group 2 promotion of 2024, but this was an important period in the Three Lions' history nonetheless.
The immediate post-Gareth Southgate era could have quite easily turned sour. In the absence of the man who united the nation and revolutionised the national-team setup, there was a world where England simply unravelled at the seams and failed to kick on as so many had hoped.
Yet Lee Carsley managed to steady the ship, despite the odd rocking of the boat and persistent questions over the existential point of his interim spell. Taking 15 points from a possible 18 to top the group ahead of Greece, Finland and Ireland was the minimum requirement, and he cleared the bar of expectation with relative ease.
