Curtis Jones Reflects On His Back-Heel Goal On England's Debut In Nations League Win Over Greece
Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones scored his first-ever goal for England on his senior debut against Greece in the UEFA Nations League in Athens on Thursday evening.
The 23-year-old who has been in fine form for the Reds this season was named in the Three Lions' starting line-up for the first time by interim boss Lee Carsley and helped them to a 3-0 victory.
Jones netted his country's third effort of the evening thanks to a brilliant flick inside the area to add to an Ollie Watkins strike and an own goal from Odysseas Vlachodimos.
On making on an impression on his debut, Jones said: "I tried, I tried! The lads around helped as well. I just went out there and I was playing free and I had a smile on my face. I was enjoying it and I'm happy I came away with a goal as well."
He added: "When you've got a team like ours I can go high and I can come low and I can get on the ball and I can play.
"There's lads there to help and there's also lads who said I can go [forward] as well. Jude [Bellingham] stayed back, so I saw I had a chance to go and lucky enough I scored."
The victory moved England above Greece by virtue of a superior head-to-head as Carsley prepares to take charge of his final game as the interim manager against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.
Speaking about Curtis Jones after the game Carsley said: "Curtis [Jones] is an outstanding player and I am delighted for him. These players play week in and week out in the Premier League. Morgan Rogers has been really good for Villa and maybe could have been in the senior squad sooner.
"I think if we're going to put these players in a position where we're going to go and win the World Cup, these players need to have as many experiences as they can, so it was no slight on Harry. He'll start the next game. I think there's a lot of positives to take from that performance.
"We've shown in the past that we've got so many quality players. I suppose the biggest challenge would be fitting them all in, and where do they all play. But I think we've played with that balance, we've got so much quality.
"There were a lot of good performances tonight, a real good team effort, and hopefully we'll see the same at Wembley."
LFC Transfer Room Football Correspondent. Covered the fortunes of Liverpool for the past three years. Follow Joseph on X (formerly Twitter) @joseph_agbobli