Here are the latest headlines from around the world of football for Sunday, June 5.
Southgate tests World Cup formula
England manager Gareth Southgate is happy to test his World Cup formula in the more pressurised environment of the Nations League - despite Saturday's defeat to Hungary. UEFA's latest international tournament has seen a drastic drop-off of friendly fixtures, with England's build-up to the winter World Cup in Qatar now dominated by Nations League matches.
A 1-0 loss in Budapest on Saturday will be followed by a clash with Germany in Munich on Tuesday night, with European champions Italy to come at Molineux next weekend. Italy and Germany are England's opponents in the September international break as the Nations League group stages conclude just two months before the World Cup kicks off.
Southgate admitted after the Hungary defeat that he may have got the balance wrong between picking a team to win the game and taking a look at different players but believes difficult Nations League fixtures provide a better proving ground than friendlies.
"I think across these four games, we've still got to find out about players," he said. "We don't have any friendlies between now and the World Cup, so the only opportunity to try things and to find out about people is within these games.
"Frankly, that's better than finding out in friendlies because we're going to see them under pressure in matches where the quality of the opposition is good. So it (the loss) doesn't really alter the way we view the period, as a coach, you've got to balance the disappointment with recognising 'OK, what have we taken from it and what do we learn from it?'.
"Knowing that, in this role, it's different to most others because of course, the fallout from a defeat is always much greater but I've got to make sure that I keep everybody else on track."
Mixed emotions for Bowen
West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen was left with mixed emotions after his promising England debut came as Gareth Southgate's men suffered a rare defeat in Hungary. The Three Lions' Nations League campaign got off to a bad start in Budapest, where children at the half-full Puskas Arena celebrated Dominik Szoboszlai's penalty in a famous 1-0 triumph.
Hungary's first win against England in 60 years was deserved, considering the pattern of play and contrasting performances on an evening when Bowen provided the visitors' best attacking outlet. The 25-year-old, who scored 18 goals in all competitions and provided 13 more for the Hammers over the last season, had an encouraging debut and admitted in the Puskas Arena's interview area afterwards: "I felt comfortable.
"Of course it's different to what I'm used to playing. I've never played international football before. It was about doing what I've been doing this season. Not changing my approach to the game, not changing the way I play, exactly how I've been playing all season and just doing it on it a bigger stage, really.
"Of course it was special playing for your country. It's just a bit disappointing with the result in terms of mixed emotions with making my debut but losing the game. But of course first and foremost making my debut for my country...I'm delighted."
Bowen will surely add to his first cap as England's frantic Nations League schedule continues this month. The Three Lions are now in Munich ahead of Tuesday's clash with Germany, before taking on Italy and Hungary at Molineux.
"This is a group of winners not used to losing many games, so of course it's disappointing, especially as it's the first game of the group where we wanted to start strong," Bowen said after the Group A3 opener. "I think the beauty about this competition is there's a lot of games coming up in a short space of time, so not time to dwell on the result and to turn our focus to the next games we've got because there's still a lot of football to be played."
Ireland 'only have themselves to blame'
Stephen Kenny admitted the Republic of Ireland had only themselves to blame after slipping to defeat in their Nations League opener in Armenia. Ireland squandered first-half chances and were made to pay as Eduard Spertsyan ended their eight-game unbeaten run in spectacular style as he snatched a 1-0 victory for the League B newcomers.
Disappointed manager Kenny said: "Obviously we lost the game, a tight game really overall. It's not a game that we deserved to lose, you couldn't say that on the balance of play or the balance of chances, but we've lost it and we've only got ourselves to blame, so we are disappointed.
"I felt the last 20-25 minutes of the first half, we were really in control, but we didn't start the second half like that at all. I was disappointed that we didn't start the second half like we ended the first. We seemed to be susceptible to counter-attacks and we found it difficult to break them down. We created some good chances but we didn't take them, some half-chances, but they didn't really have any chances bar the offside goal, so it was disappointing overall."
