The Three Lions took on the Irish in Dublin in their first match of the new Nations League cycle, under the leadership of interim manager Lee Carsley. He handed a competitive international debut to Colwill, who was also a key member of Carsley’s 2023 Under-21 Euros-winning side.

Just like in his only previous senior appearance for England, in a friendly against Australia last October, Colwill played the full match at left-back and helped his country to a clean sheet on their way to victory.

The goals came in the first half as Declan Rice and Jack Grealish – who had both previously represented Saturday’s opponents – found the net to give the Three Lions a 2-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland.

Noni Madueke was on the bench, but will hope to make his own senior international debut when England are next in Nations League action, at Wembley against Finland on Tuesday evening.

In South America, Moises Caicedo shared the pitch with two future Blues as Ecuador were narrowly beaten by Brazil in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in the early hours of Saturday morning (UK time).

Caicedo was in the Ecuador starting line-up, and was joined from the bench by Kendry Paez at half-time, while Estevao Willian came on for the last half-an-hour to make his debut for Brazil. Paez and Estevao will both join Chelsea next summer.

Brazil recovered from their run of three consecutive qualifying defeats, the worst run in their history, as Rodrygo’s deflected first-half shot gave them a 1-0 win. Caicedo thought he had salvaged a point for the visitors when he beat the keeper at the end of a swift counter-attack, only to see Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhaes recover to clear off the line.

The win sees Brazil leapfrog their opponents to go fourth in the table, but Ecuador drop down to sixth, the final automatic qualification spot for the World Cup.

There was an equaliser by a Chelsea player at youth level, though. Harrison Murray-Campbell captained England Under-19s in their match against Croatia, joined in the starting XI by Kiano Dyer before Tyrique George, Josh Acheampong and Reiss Denny joined them off the bench. Ishe Samuels-Smith was an unused substitute.

George was the one to get the goal. After a first-half stalemate, Croatia had taken the lead from the penalty spot midway through the second period, but the Blues winger struck just four minutes later to earn a 1-1 away draw for the Young Lions.

Leo Cardoso started for Portugal Under-19s against Hungary, making way shortly after they had scored their second goal in the 69th minute, on their way to a 4-0 win. That gives Portugal maximum points from their first two matches of the Stevan Vilotic International Tournament, before concluding against hosts Serbia on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, 16-year-old defender Harry McGlinchey came off the bench for the Republic of Ireland Under-19s to play the last 15 minutes of their friendly against France. He helped them pull a goal back late on, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a 2-1 defeat.