Jack Grealish gave Trent Alexander-Arnold cheeky extra motivation for England wonderstrike

Dom Farrell

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Jack Grealish gave Trent Alexander-Arnold cheeky extra motivation for England wonderstrike image

Trent Alexander-Arnold pouched himself a nice little earner as England eased to a 3-1 UEFA Nations League victory over Finland in Helsinki.

The Three Lions returned to winning ways under interim boss Lee Carsley following Thursday's shock 2-1 loss to Greece at Wembley, with Jack Grealish, Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice getting the goals.

A lovely piece of combination play between the impressive Angel Gomes and Grealish made for a pleasing 18th-minute opener — but it was Alexander-Arnold's exquisite 25-yard free-kick to put the game beyond Finland's reach that stole the show.

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Speaking to ITV after the match, Grealish revealed he gave Liverpool star Alexander-Arnold a little extra inspiration after Jude Bellingham won a foul in a dangerous position.

"I said to him, obviously for a joke, 'if you score this I'll give you 500 quid' and then he just slapped it in the top bins," the Manchester City winger explained.

"I owe him, I think he'll be saying that to me."

Trent Alexander-Arnold England goals

The strike in the Finnish capital was Alexander-Arnold's fourth as an international.

His maiden England goal came back in November 2018 in a friendly against the United States. That was a month after Alexander-Arnold turned 20 in a game to mark Wayne Rooney's departure from international football.

During the now-shelved midfield experiment under Gareth Southgate, Alexander-Arnold was on target in the June 2023 European Championship qualifier against minnows Malta and a pre-Euro 2024 friendly versus Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Sunday's outing at left-back marked another new role in England colours, but Carsley strongly implied the days of playing the Liverpool favourite out of his comfort zone should be at an end.

"Trent's quality speaks for itself," he told ITV.

"As long as he's in effective positions he's great to have on the field.

"It's important that if we've got players with that quality we play to their strengths and we definitely do that with Trent."

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.