28 min: Saka has been fairly quiet so far. Palmer very nearly releases him into the box with a forensic pass down the inside-right channel, but Greece slam the door shut. England switch the play and Gordon wins a corner out on the left.

27 min: “In the other match in this group, Joel Pohjanpalo, of hipster’s choice Venezia FC, has just put Finland 1-0 up,” reports Kári Tulinius. “The assist came from Nathan Collins, who gifted the chance to his opponent. A couple of minutes later, it looked Ireland had equalised from a well-worked set piece, but Nathan Collins was offside for his assist to Evan Ferguson. Not a good spell for the Brentford stalwart.”

25 min: Bakasetas is seeing a lot of the ball. He takes a blast from the best part of 30 yards. It’s easily blocked, but that’s a measure of the Greece captain’s confidence right now.

24 min: Gordon dribbles hard down the left, but is forced to turn tail. Vlachodimos hasn’t had that much to do yet.

22 min: Bellingham advances down the left this time, and pulls back from the byline for Palmer. He leans back and blasts over from ten yards. You’ll likely have expected him to score. Not sure how this is still 0-0.

21 min: Greece go close again! Tzolis barrels down the inside-left and slips Giannoulis in on the overlap. Giannoulis cuts back for Bakasetas, whose shot towards the bottom left is blocked by Stones. Pickford again didn’t look convincing.

19 min: Masouras embarks on another dribble down the right. For a second, England look a little light at the back, but Foden comes across to put a stop to the Greek winger’s gallop. “As a Everton fan and a big fan of Pickford I can attest to these facts,” begins Mary Waltz. “He is an incredible goaltender but periodically he will look like a pub league amateur who had too many pints before the match. These howlers can happen out of the blue at any time or not at all. Genius has its limitations.”

17 min: Space for Bellingham down the right. He twists Koulierakis this way and that, but has nobody in the middle to aim a cross at, so decides to shoot from a tight angle instead. Full marks for ambition.

15 min: Greece will wonder how they’ve not broken their Wembley duck. That was an outrageously good clearance by Colwill. Pickford owes him a pint. Of ouzo.

13 min: Rice extends a leg and catches Kourbelis, 35 yards from the England goal. Bakasetas launches the free kick towards nobody in particular, and Pickford claims this time. The England keeper then has the brass neck to wave his arms around in the authoritative orchestra-conducting style. Given what’s just gone before, that’s ten out of ten for chutzpah.

11 min: .. and from that corner, Greece do get the ball in the net this time. Mavropanos heads home from close range with Pickford flapping. But the Greek defender was clearly offside. Pickford gets away with another huge gaffe.

10 min: Pavlidis chases a long ball down the middle. He doesn’t reach it, Pickford coming out of his box to intercept. But the keeper then clanks a pass straight to Bakasetas, who loops over the stranded keeper and towards the unguarded net. The ball’s heading in, but Colwill hooks it off the line sensationally! How did he keep that out? Just a corner.

8 min: … and after some interminable faff, Palmer aims for the top-right corner but the ball clears the bar. Vlachodimos had it covered.

6 min: Vlachodimos kicks upfield. Rice returns it straight back. It nearly finds Foden on the edge of the Greece box. Not quite. But Greece soon ship possession again, Bellingham attempting to advance down the inside-right channel. Koulierakis, whose clearance Bellingham had intercepted, lunges and catches the England man. Into the book he goes. He’ll miss Greece’s next game. Free kick to England, just to the right of the D.

4 min: Greece deal with Saka’s corner easily enough, then counter … and nearly score! Kourbelis steals the ball off a snoozing Bellingham and the visitors storm upfield. Pavlidis drifts in from the left and curls powerfully towards the top right. Pickford can’t reach the shot at full stretch, but the ball sails past the post. Just. So close to Greece’s first-ever goal at Wembley!

3 min: Palmer has a fresh-air swipe , 25 yards out. Bellingham tries again. His attempt is much better, a power-curler aimed for the top right. Vlachodimos turns around the post to concede the first corner of the game.

2 min: England continue to stroke it around. One attempted dribble down the right by Masouras apart, Greece haven’t had a touch yet.

England get the match underway. They start with a few gentle passes across the back.

Before kick-off, a moment of silence in memory of George Baldock. Just before, a grim-faced Manolis Siopis held up his white Greece No2 shirt by way of tribute.

The teams are out! England wear white, Greece second-choice blue. Pennants are to be swapped, coins tossed, fists bumped, but in the meantime, here’s more on our “entirely predictable shoehorning of that Beckham game, the replay of which is criminally overplayed”, courtesy of Chris Paraskevas. “Let’s just clarify something now and forever: it was never a free kick in a million years and Antonis Nikopolidis was never a proper goalkeeper in a million years. I think you’ll find highlights from a 0-0 draw between these two sides in 1983 go a more accurate indication of the Three Lions’ future.”

Pre-match postbag o’ optimism. “If Bazball has revolutionised England cricket with its attacking mindset – 145 consecutive overs without facing a maiden today in that 823/7 – this England line-up feels like it could be the birth of Cazball: stuffed with attack-minded talent, including the full backs, a holding midfielder who is now a marauding no8 and a centre back that may soon be playing CDM for the champions. Feels like a large and perhaps conscious step change from Gareth’s famous caution” – Graham Porter

“No recognised striker maybe, but five superb finishers. We may not have Kane, but we look very very CapAbel!” – Billy Ditchburn (brazenly parking his tanks on our old friend Peter Oh’s pun-tastic lawn)

… and to bring the discourse back to ground level …

“I’m not sure I agree with you about Beckham’s game not being a reliable foreshadowing of England’s 2002 World Cup credentials. If memory serves, across the game England were atrocious and in the cold light of day no match for genuine contenders” – Tom Hopkins (who has a point to be fair)

England aren’t the only ones without their main striker this evening. Fotis Ioannidis of Panathinaikos limped off against Olympiakos last weekend and misses out for Greece; he’d already bagged three goals in the first two matches of this Nations League campaign. Kostas Tsimikas of Liverpool is also out injured. Odysseas Vlachodimos of Newcastle, West Ham’s Dinos Mavropanos and Cardiff’s Manolis Siopis all start.

Lee Carsley speaks to ITV. “It’s given us a chance to try something … to be creative with the system and hopefully the way we play … we’ve got to show Greece the respect they deserve … it’s important we match them physically … we have a lot of flexibility … you may see a lot of changes tonight … we must make sure we stretch the opposition … we’re looking forward to the game … a chance to hopefully be exciting … we’ve got some really creative players in wide areas and at full-back … a lot of different opportunities … we’re expecting a really tough game tonight.”

The last time England played Greece, at Old Trafford in a 2006 friendly, the visitors were the reigning European champions and the hosts scored four goals in the first half. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch (2) did the business that evening, launching the Steve McClaren era in spectacular style. The game ended 4-0 and the Guardian’s Kevin McCarra observed that the new boss “might wish that his career as England manager could end on the night it began”, a wry observation that many others would soon vehemently wish had come to pass. So let’s not place too much importance on how Lee Carsley’s all-out attacking plan pans out tonight: as harbingers go, this fixture has proved itself a bum steer in the past.

The one before that? A 2-2 draw in 2001, the David Beckham game, the one that sent England to the 2002 World Cup with belief that Sven-Göran Eriksson could be the man to put an end to those 36 years of hurt. A reliable foreshadowing it most certainly was not.

But what the past also tells us is that England are favourites to win tonight. They’ve played Greece on nine previous occasions, winning seven and drawing the other two, racking up a cumulative scoreline of 23-3. More up-to-date data is on England’s side as well: the Three Lions are the fourth-best side in the world according to Fifa’s rankings, while Greece are 48th. But nothing’s ever cut and dried, and Ivan Jovanović’s men have a pretty much identical record to England in League B2 so far – an away win in Dublin and a home victory over Finland – so a shock victory is not out of the question.

1. Greece P2 W2 D0 L0 F5 A0 Pts6

2. England P2 W2 D0 L0 F4 A0 Pts6

3. Republic of Ireland P2 W0 D0 L2 F0 A4 Pts6

4. Finland P2 W0 D0 L2 F0 A5 Pts0

There’s no Harry Kane for England tonight … and no recognised striker in Lee Carsley’s starting XI. No matter: Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham are all crowbarred in, and they’re not exactly a bad collection of back-up attacking talent. Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke wait on the bench, just in case.

The teams

Preamble