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ATHENS: This time, Lee Carsley’s gamble paid off.

In a surprise move, England’s interim coach left captain Harry Kane on the bench for the Nations League match against Greece on Thursday and the youthful team eased to a 3-0 win in Athens.

It was a far cry from a month ago when Carsley boldly picked a team featuring no recognized strikers — Kane was injured on that occasion — and full of midfielders, only for England to lose 2-1 to Greece at Wembley Stadium.

Carsley’s brief tenure with England as a caretaker coach after the departure of Gareth Southgate has been under a cloud of scrutiny since that first-ever defeat to Greece. Yet he’ll hand the reins to Thomas Tuchel at the end of the year with his reputation somewhat restored and the future suddenly looking more positive for the national team.

Indeed, looking to the future is the reason he chose Ollie Watkins over Kane for this match.

“This team needs to try and create leaders and one way to do that is give them opportunities,” he said of the decision to pick Watkins in a team that also included a debut for Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones.

Watkins led England’s forward-leaning formation, justifying the selection with a goal in the seventh minute when he tapped in a cross from 22-year-old winger Noni Madueke — another unexpected starter.

Jude Bellingham had a hand in the second goal in the 78th, sending in a shot that hit the post before the ball deflected off Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos and into the net. Jones flicked the ball in for 3-0 five minutes later.

“There were a lot of positives,” Carsley said. “I see the quality the players have got and you’re now seeing what they are capable of. ... When you see the team, you might have thought it was a gamble — you know, a risk — but I’ve got real confidence in these players.”

Kane came on for Watkins in the 66th minute and Carsley said he expected the captain to start on Sunday when England hosts Ireland, seeking a win to finish top of the group and secure promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League.

“He was absolutely fine,” Carsley said. “I think it’d be fair to say he wants to play every game like all top players do. I think he understands it’s important that other players experience that kind of experience we had tonight. He’s a great example to the rest of the players.

“It was brilliant for Ollie to get a goal,” Carsley added. “It’s important that if we’re going to put these players in a position where we are going to win the World Cup, these players need as many experiences as they can. It was no slight on Harry.”

The Greeks went scoreless despite convincing spells in attack, with coach Ivan Jovanovic conceding that England had found its form to halt a run of four successive wins for his team.

“England is a better team for sure, they have higher quality, but the result could have been different,” Jovanovic said. “I have no complaints with the effort the players put in, their runs and their challenges, but we were a notch behind them. England was very good, very good, and we were below the level we can play at.”

ASUNCION: Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Vinicius Junior had frustrating nights in South American World Cup qualifying.

While Messi could not help his team avoid a 2-1 defeat at Paraguay, Vinicius Junior missed a second-half penalty as Brazil was held to a 1-1 draw at Venezuela on Thursday.

Argentina will remain on the top of the 10-team round robin competition with a 22 points in 11 matches, Brazil are provisionally in third place in the standings with 17 points.

The 11th round of South American World Cup qualifying will continue on Friday with second-place Colombia visiting Uruguay and the bottom two teams in the standings, Peru and Chile, facing off in Lima.

An anti-Messi message

Argentina played at Paraguay with the hosts having banned local fans from wearing any Messi shirts in the home crowd. TV footage of the match in Asuncion showed that the vast majority of the local crowd was wearing Paraguay’s red and white colors, with no Messi shirts visible in the local broadcasts.

Messi had few opportunities to touch the ball during the first half, but saw Lautaro Martinez open the scoring in the 11th minute with a crossed shot. The goal was allowed after a video review.

Paraguay scored the equalizer with a bicycle kick by Antonio Sanabria in the 19th minute, shortly after defender Gustavo Gomez hit the bar with a header.

The hosts continued to apply pressure, and gave the Argentine star some heavy marking. Messi showed he was upset with Brazilian referee Anderson Daronco for not sending off Paraguay’s Omar Alderete for his aggressive tackles.

It was Alderete who scored Paraguay’s winner with a header in the 47th minute, which puts Paraguay back in contention for a spot in the next World Cup.

“We came to a hard place where the national team always struggled,” said Martínez. “We have to correct a lot of things we did wrong in this match, but generally speaking we are playing well. We are still in the lead, and we have to look forward.”

A disappointing night for Vinicius Junior

Vinicius Junior is still without a goal in six matches of World Cup qualifying.

He had the chance to score a potential winner after he earned the penalty in the 67th minute but his low spot kick was saved by goalkeeper Rafael Romo and the Brazil forward then shot wide from the rebound.

Brazil had the best chances in the first half, with Vinicius hitting the post once after dribbling three Venezuelans and shooting from the edge of the box. But it was Raphinha who opened the scoring from a free kick in the 43rd minute.

Venezuela brought on 21-year-old Telasco Segovia at halftime and the substitution had an immediate effect as he equalized in the 46th minute with a powerful shot from the edge of the box.

Venezuela went down to 10 men in the 89th minute after Alexander Gonzalez was sent off for hitting both Gabriel Martinelli and Vinicius Júnior in the face.

The irrigation system then came on two minutes before the final whistle at the Monumental Stadium in the city of Maturin, 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of the capital Caracas, which angered Brazil players.

“When we don’t win I leave the pitch a bit disappointed, we deserved to win this one,” Raphinha said after the match. “But it is an important point playing away, we are working hard to win the next one at home.”