Rice and Hudson-Odoi make first England starts

PODGORICA (Reuters) - England's Declan Rice and teenager Callum Hudson-Odoi were handed their first starts by manager Gareth Southgate for Monday's Euro 2020 Group A qualifier away to Montenegro.

Rice and Hudson-Odoi make first England starts

(Reuters)

Both players earned their first caps when making substitute appearances in the 5-0 home win over Czech Republic in England's opening qualifier on Friday.

Chelsea forward Hudson-Odoi, 18, became the second-youngest England player to start a competitive international behind former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.

He took the place of Jadon Sancho who dropped to the bench.

Rice was playing in central midfield instead of Jordan Henderson -- completing a remarkable few weeks for the 20-year-old who last month switched allegiance from Ireland for whom he played three friendly internationals.

The West Ham United player was forced to apologise last week after a Twitter message, posted several years ago, came to light in which he made a comment suggesting support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Rice said it was a "poorly expressed comment" made when he was a junior player.

Regarding the team changes, Southgate said: "Jordan had a slight issue during the week so we can bring him from the bench if we need to, and Jadon has had a lot of football and Callum is fresh, so we wanted to freshen it up".

Midifielder Ross Barkley, who came on as a substitute for the injured Eric Dier at Wembley Stadium on Friday, kept his place while Danny Rose replaced Ben Chilwell at left back.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Follow SBS News

Download our apps

Listen to our podcasts

Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service

Watch now

Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world