Boo boys tarnish clash
THOUSANDS of Hungarian kids jeered England for taking the knee – on an evening when Gareth Southgate’s men looked like they could do with a lie down.
It’s a good job there are still 170 days left until the Three Lions kick off their World Cup campaign in Qatar because they looked tired and toothless in the Hungarian heat.
Forget four Nations League games in the space of 10 days at the end of another gruelling season. England looked more in need of some downtime in a four-poster bed.
It still took a shocker of a penalty decision to hand them their first defeat in 22 games.
Dominik Szoboszlai fired home from the spot in the 66th minute after Portuguese referee Artur Dias bought Zsolt Nagy’s theatrical dive after he had tangled with Reece James faster than a French politician making up excuses.
Southgate said: “I don’t think we did enough to win the game but the result hinged on what I think is a harsh decision.
“The forward made a meal of it but sometimes you get these decisions going against you when you’re away from home.
“I didn’t see any sign of tiredness in the training sessions but the heat did take a lot out of the players.
“I don’t want to be too harsh because we need to learn lessons from games like this.
“But the bottom line is that if we want to be a top-tier team then we have to come to places like this and win.”
At least Szoboszlai’s strike gave the junior Magyars something to cheer rather than jeer.
UEFA had allowed more than 30,000 children to half-fill the Puskas Arena after initially ordering the game to be played behind closed doors after ongoing issues with racism and
homophobia. It was still a shock to hear youngsters aged no more than 14 react angrily when England’s players took the knee before kick-off.
Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham suffered abuse in the same stadium last year.
Sterling was on the bench last night, while teenager Bellingham won his 13th cap.
Both will remember Budapest for its bigots.
England now have games against Germany and Italy before they meet Hungary in the return. Then they can take some well-earned rest before getting back on the treadmill.
Southgate said: “It’s now a big game in Germany on Tuesday night – as if a game between England and Germany isn’t always big.”
He experimented with a threeman defence of Kyle Walker, Conor Coady and Harry Maguire, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and new-boy James Justin as wingbacks. It didn’t work. Justin was replaced by Bukayo Saka at the break after taking a knock.
And although fellow debutant Jarrod Bowen was arguably England’s best performer, the visitors were overrun in midfield and toothless in attack.
England’s only first-half threat came from Bowen, with Harry Kane (right) only getting one sniff of his 50th international goal when he sent a snap shot into the side-netting.
Hungary cranked up the tempo after the break and Nagy sent a low shot skidding just wide. They had England pinned back for long periods before Nagy felt the arm of James on his neck and rolled the dice by taking a tumble.
Szoboszlai found the bottom corner with his spot kick.
The noise was incessant – although Coady almost silenced the home fans with a flicked header that drifted inches wide from James’ free-kick.
Hungary took a lap of honour to mark their first victory over England for 60 years.