In the ongoing 2024/25 UEFA Nations League, Lee Carsley's England national team prepared to face Greece and Finland in group B after winning their first two matches last month. While the UEFA Euro 2024 runners-up were the heavy favourites to take another step towards promotion to the League A with another win, they were surprised by Greece's resilience who scored a last-minute winner to register a memorable 2-1 win over England. This is a huge blow to England's promotional ambitions, who recently left out West Ham star forward Jarrod Bowen from their matchday squad.
While the Hammers captain wasn't available in this match, another West Ham player put up an impressive performance for Greece as they took their third consecutive win in Group B. The Hammers signed £19 million Greece international Konstantinos Mavropanos from Stuttgart last year, who has been very inconsistent with his performances in the starting lineup. The 26-year-old centre-back possesses great physicality and is a dominant ball-playing defender at the heart of the defence, however, his decision making isn't convincing and gives away possession sometimes as well.
£19 million Hammers star rock-solid in surprising Nations League win
Moreover, with Jean-Clair Todibo forming a reliable centre-back partnership with Max Kilman at West Ham, Mavropanos has become the third choice central defender in Julen Lopetegui's squad. However, Mavropanos was at his very best against England, and nearly managed to keep a clean-sheet while facing star forrwards such as Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka. Mavropanos was calm and composed in the defence and timed his run well to make several interceptions in order to avoid England from creating more spaces inside the final third.
On top of that, England were playing without a quality centre forward such as Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins, which gave an advantage to Mavropanos in winning multiple aerial duels and keeping more ball possession. The former Arsenal star was left out of West Ham's starting lineup in the previous two league matches, but could be in contention for a starting centre-back role as well if he continues his impressive defending in the upcoming matches as well. Mavropanos showcasing his huge potential as a defender is a massive boost to West Ham, who can play three quality defenders in their lineup as well to provide more tactical flexibility to manager Julen Lopetegui.