Trent Alexander Arnold pulled off a stunning curler to convert a free kick in England’s last UEFA Nations League game against Finland on Sunday. The Three Lions registered a 3-1 victory in the away fixture in Helsinki. Jack Grealish, who broke the deadlock in the 18th minute, shared an anecdote about Arnold’s strike after the match.
The Manchester City star revealed how he motivated Arnold to score from that set piece. “I said ‘if you score this I’ll give you £500’ and then he just slapped it in the top bins. So I owe him now,” Grealish told ITV, as quoted by Sky Sports.
England had been leading by one goal when Jude Bellingham was fouled by Finland midfielder Leo Walta outside the penalty box. Arnold came forward to take the free-kick and fired it home from the top-left corner. It marked his fourth goal for the England team in his 33 appearances. The 26-year-old has recorded two assists in his nine matches for Liverpool this season.
Despite the brilliant free kick, Manchester United legend Roy Keane was not impressed with Arnold’s defensive prowess in the National League fixture. Keane, however, praised the Liverpool star for his “decision-making and passing.”
“You give time to Trent because his decision-making and quality of passing are fantastic, but I can’t believe how bad he is defensively and against better teams, he’ll be punished. If you saw him the other night defending (against Greece), it looked like he’d never played right-back before,” Roy Keane said on ITV (via Sportskeeda).
Meanwhile, Jack Grealish feels England could have scored more against Finland. “I think we could have had a few more, especially towards the end when the game opened up. It was difficult at times in the first half. We needed a win today, so happy with that,” the Manchester City forward said.
Grealish, who was out of Gareth Southgate’s EURO squad, has been recalled by England’s interim manager Lee Carsley. The 29-year-old was able to demonstrate his quality against Finland and put his team in front early in the first half. Declan Rice scored the third goal for England in the 84th minute. England will meet Greece in the next Nations League game on November 15.
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