Levi Colwill hardly covered himself in glory during England’s shock 2-1 defeat to Greece at Wembley on Thursday night.
The Chelsea defender was caught cold in a fumbling defensive display that rightly invited a considerable degree of scrutiny from the ITV studio after the full-time whistle. A costly outing that saw Arsenal attacker Bukayo Saka limp off the field of play with a suspected injury.
In a 12-second display of defensive slapstick, after initially heading a lofted ball, the Southampton-born ace failed to clear the ball on at least three occasions before the visitors managed to squeeze in a winner.
Vangelis Pavlidis capitalised on the chaos in the England box, with Colwill seen tripping over Manchester City’s Rico Lewis directly before the Benfica centre-forward’s winner.
To give credit where credit is due, the England international did otherwise have a statistically acceptable outing against the visiting Greek national outfit.
The 21-year-old secured a 7.5/10 rating from Sofascore after completing 6/10 duels (air and ground), registering a pass success rate of 89% (81/91) and making six clearances. Colwill did lose possession 12 times on the night, however, which will surely be a concern for his head coach back in the English capital.
Enzo Maresca will just have to hope that his first-choice centre-back isn’t ready to drop another defensive clanger of epic proportions against an in-form Liverpool side in 10 days.
Or, if that indeed occurs on the day at Anfield, that Christopher Nkunku (or any of Chelsea’s frontmen) can help keep the Blues in the game.
The Londoners will head up to the red half of Merseyside as a team not to likewise be trifled with. However, the simple fact remains that they can afford no giveaways when coming up against Arne Slot’s defensively resolute Liverpool side.
It’s fair to assume that the Merseysiders – with only two goals conceded in the league this term – won’t be offering their upcoming opponents any freebies.
You can catch the clip below, courtesy of ITV:
?? "Somebody deal with this!"
?? "There's three or four players out of position!"
The panel on Greece's last-minute winner #ITVFootball | #NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/BRXTI1Nj6Z
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) October 10, 2024
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