Weekend Review: England recover from Greek tragedy with fine Finnish to international break

England (1/4) beat Finland (12/1) 3-1 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in the final Nations League fixture of what was a punter-friendly international break

Goals from Jack Grealish, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice had put Lee Carsely’s men out of sight before a late consolation from Arttu Hoskonen for the home side. 

The result leaves England second in their Nations League group, three points behind Greece, who shocked the Three Lions with a 2-1 victory at Wembley Stadium midweek. 

Francisco Cano, head of trading at LiveScore Group, highlighted that England’s fixture had attracted the most attention over the weekend. 

He said: “Another international break this weekend with the UEFA Nations Leagues taking centre stage and, unsurprisingly, the most popular game was Finland versus England that took place on Sunday evening.  

“England managed to obtain a comfortable win against Finland and gave us the best activity of the weekend. However, we recorded a negative margin for the match. The best margin of the weekend was on Bulgaria versus Luxembourg, which finished 0-0.” 

Much of the buildup before the Finland game centred around interim boss Lee Carsley’s comments about taking up the job on a permanent basis, with the former England under-21s chief suggesting a more experienced manager could be better placed to take on the role.

Carsley is currently second favourite with bookmakers to succeed Gareth Southgate (4/1) in the role full-time.

OLBG’s Jake Ashton explained just how much the odds for England’s next manager have shifted after the latest round of fixtures, with former Bayern Munich and Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel in the driver’s seat.

He said: “Thomas Tuchel is now the odds-on favourite for the England manager’s job after the latest round of International games saw Lee Carsley’s side lose to Greece at Wembley before a win away to Finland.

“Thomas Tuchel has now shortened into 4/5 to be the next England manager with bookmakers moving the German boss into favourite to manage the Three Lions with various speculation linking him with the role next.

“The FA have a massive task on their hands in choosing Gareth Southgate’s permanent replacement and it looks increasingly likely this week that it’ll be Tuchel who gets the role.”

Betfred’s Alan Firkins suggested England’s performances over the international break won’t have helped Carsley stake a claim for the top job.  

He said: “The uncertainty surrounding the position of England manager going forward certainly wasn’t helped by UEFA Nations League defeat to Greece last Thursday at Wembley, though bookmakers were not complaining.  

“Greece were full value for a 2-1 win that could have been even more conclusive, and few England players advanced their cause. 

“Something a little closer to normal service was resumed on Sunday with a 3-1 win in Finland, but with interim boss Lee Carsley hard to read as to whether he really feels fully equipped for the job things appear to be rather up in the air right now.” 

Elsewhere in England’s group, table toppers Greece (4/5) maintained their 100% record in the campaign thus far with a 2-0 win over Republic of Ireland (4/1).

European champions Spain (2/5) ran out 1-0 winners against Denmark (7/1), while Cristiano Ronaldo added yet another goal to his international tally to help Portugal (13/20) to a 3-1 win against Poland (4/1).

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said bettors enjoyed a successful international break amid wins for the favourites across the Nations League.

He noted: “Punters came out ahead with Greece’s 2-0 win over Republic of Ireland. All round, a pretty punter-friendly weekend, as international breaks often are, although Spain being held to 1-0 against Denmark and Serbia’s 2-0 win over Switzerland were two which saw us finish ahead.” 

Meanwhile, in horseracing, Alphonse Le Grande (33/1) won the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch Handicap at Newmarket ahead of Manxman (7/1) and Aqwaam (33/1).  

Evens favourite Shadow of Light took the win in the Darley Dewhurst Stakes, beating out Expanded (12/1) and Ancient Truth (13/8).  

At York on Friday, Minstrel Knight (7/1) won the William Hill Finale Handicap ahead of Filibustering (16/1) and Master Builder (11/4).  

The following day, Strike Red (6/1) won the Coral Sprint Trophy Handicap, edging out 11/2 favourite Room Service. 

Gill described a mix bag of results for bookmakers and punters alike.  

He continued: “Newmarket on Saturday saw Alphonse Le Grande come out a big price winner in the Cesarewitch at 33/1, despite the looming threat of a disqualification due to jockey Jamie Powell breaking the whip rules.  

“Despite that, a great result for the book with a couple of big-priced runners in the places too. The Sprint Trophy at York went to the well-backed Strike Red at 6/1 after holding off the 11/2 favourite Room Service to win by three-quarters of a length, no surprises that one went to the punters.” 

Firkins added: “The Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket was robbed of favourite The Lion In Winter on the morning of the race through injury but even in his absence we were treated to an absolute thriller.  

“Charlie Appleby’s Lope De Vega colt Shadow of Light raced for the most part on arguably the slower side of HQ’s Rowley Mile, but drifted across to the leaders and ran them down in the shadow (ouch) of the post to prevail by a neck.  

“Looked a performance full of quality even on the testing ground, and he’s in to 10/1 from 16s for the Betfred 2000 Guineas.” 

Finally, in Rugby League’s Super League Grand final, Wigan Warriors (9/25) ran out 9-2 winners over Hull KR in a low-scoring affair at Old Trafford.  

The result saw Wigan Warriors become the first side to win all four trophies (World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup, League Leader’s Shield and Super League) in a single season in the Super League era. 

Firkins concluded: “Warm favourites Wigan Warriors beat Hull KR in a low-scoring Betfred Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford and became the first Super League side to win all four trophies in a single season.

“Warriors’ stand-off, Bevan French, scored a scintillating individual try and deservedly took the inaugural Rob Burrow Man of the Match award.”