Just when it seemed that Jude Bellingham had bailed out another England manager with a late rescue act, Vangelis Pavlidis capitalised on some shambolic defending to score his second of the night and condemn Lee Carsley’s side to a humiliating 2-1 defeat at Wembley.
Pavlidis’ close-range finish in the 94th-minute ensured justice was done for Greece, who were as impressive as England were chaotic in a famous win, which will be dedicated to the memory of their late international, George Baldock, who died this week.
A 1-1 draw was far more than England deserved and even a 1-0 defeat would have flattered them.
Greece tore through Carsley’s ultra-attacking team with ease on the counter-attack and, before Pavlidis wriggled free in the area to finish low again, the visitors had already seen three goals disallowed for offside and been denied by a spectacular goal-line clearance by Levi Colwill.
Carsley’s midfield – effectively made up of Cole Palmer and Declan Rice – was repeatedly bypassed by Greece's quick exchanges, while at the other end, England’s myriad attacking talent failed to click.
Palmer went closest with a 20-yard free-kick and blazed over a glorious chance from nine yards in their best openings before Bellingham appeared to have rescued a point with a crisp strike three minutes from time.
Carsley will emerge from a bruising night with his hopes of landing the England job on a permanent basis severely dented, but just about alive.
He will likely have three more games this autumn to make amends, starting with Sunday’s game against Finland in Helsinki, but the interim head coach’s decisions severely backfired in his third game in charge.
Carsley was under pressure to accommodate England’s three gifted No10s, Bellingham, Phil Foden and Palmer, none of whom was available to him last month.
His predecessor Gareth Southgate struggled to get the best out of Foden and Bellingham in tandem at the European Championship, while Palmer did not start at all in Germany.
Carsley, though, not only found room for the trio, but kept Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon on the wings, with Bellingham a false No9.
The gung-ho XI felt like a clean break from the Southgate era and bore similarities to Carsley’s Under-21 Euros-winning squad, when Gordon and Morgan Gibbs-White played as false No9s.
To use such a bold system at this level, though, also felt like a declaration that Carsley would be an England manager less preoccupied by concepts such as balance and positions and more focussed on finding room for his most talented players.
In the circumstances you could see the logic: Palmer, Foden and Bellingham are all too good to leave out at the moment and England were without Harry Kane and Kobbie Mainoo to injury. So why not?
The Nations League is, after all, the perfect occasion to experiment, and for most of Southgate’s tenure supporters were frustrated at his unwillingness to be brave in this type of fixture.
The danger, of course, is that England would simply have too many cooks, a surplus of technical forwards at the expense of ball-winners and a coherent structure. And so it proved in a dismal evening at the national stadium when Carsley’s England looked every bit as dysfunctional as Southgate’s stodgy team at the Euros.
Even long after it had become clear that England were far too easy to play through, Carsley did not respond by changing the system from the bench.
Saka limped off immediately after the Greece goal – a concern for Arsenal – but on came Noni Madueke in a straight swap. Centre-forwards Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke, who would have been more like-for-like replacements for Kane, were also introduced before the end for Gordon and Foden.
England, though, continued to look clunky in the final third and wide open at the back, and the danger of playing Palmer in midfield was underline by Pavlidis' first goal at the start of the second, when the Chelsea forward was reluctant to put in a tackle.
Southgate was panned for his tendency to turn to Conor Gallagher around the hour mark at the Euros but the Atletico Madrid midfield was surely exactly what England needed.
The generous reading is that Carsley was making a political point to disgruntled supporters: ‘Have your fantasy team, let’s see how it works.’
But there is a case that he simply bowed to the clamour to cram all of England’s best attackers into the same team, which will raise questions about the interim manager’s judgement.
Southgate, of course, had his own dire nights in this competition and England were relegated to the second tier in the previous campaign, in spite of the manager’s caution.
And yet, more often than not, Southgate’s England comfortably navigated this kind of occasion and it is hard to remember a side of Greece’s quality enjoying this kind of night at Wembley under the former coach.
Carsley is left on the back-foot, his dream line-up dismantled and the Under-21 boss perhaps needing to heed some lessons about the realities at this level from the man he replaced.
