NATIONS LEAGUE STEVE BATES
IT’S NOT quite back to the drawing board for Gareth Southgate – but the road to Qatar now looks anything but smooth.
Three Lions boss Southgate saw precious little Good from his England stars, plenty of Bad – and the downright Ugly in Budapest.
On a night to forget in Hungary England lost to the Magyars for the first time in 60 years, failing miserably to muster a performance befitting their fifth-place Fifa world ranking.
Instead they were well beaten by a Hungary team 35 places below them in the pecking order on another night of shame for football.
Racist
This was meant to be a behind-closeddoors game after their hosts were hit with a two-match empty stadium punishment for racist behaviour from their fans in previous games.
A UEFA loophole, though, allows children to attend and up to 30,000 – accompanied by a proportion of adults – made a noisy backdrop for players who would otherwise have played in eerie silence in the impressive Ferenc Puskas Arena.
Depressingly, endemic racism in this part of the world meant that, while the ‘schoolkids’ respected the National Anthems, there were prominent boos when England’s players took the knee. Thankfully, none of England’s black stars were subjected to the kind of disgraceful discrimination they might have encountered in a stadium full of adults.
But hope of a better, more enlightened future for Eastern European nations such as Hungary seems unlikely if 10-year-olds are jeering anti-discrimination gestures.
While Southgate and the FA no doubt despaired, once the game kicked off the England boss was looking at the bigger picture of how he shapes the next five months in the build-up to the World Cup.
And he can’t have liked much of what he saw on a warm night as England lost for the first time in 24 games.
Southgate is still far enough out from November to be open minded about his squad for Qatar.
And it’s a good job too.
He gave a nod to two debutants, West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and Leicester wingback James Justin.
Live-wire Bowen was well worth his cap, delivering his usual energy, grit and passion.
The popular Hammer is everything Southgate likes in a player.
And he didn’t disappoint with an allaction show which stood out on a night when England were well below par.
Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham weighed in with a shift too and continues
to show promise of bigger days ahead. But after that there was little to comfort Southgate – and far more worrying signs, especially defensively – than positive signals for the England boss.
The takeaway message from this Nations League clash was that England still have plenty to do before they head to the Qatar 2022 tournament.
And if Southgate thought he wasn’t far off knowing the 23 players he’ll take to Qatar, he’ll be surely revising that now.
Outside of the group chosen for this four-match run of June fixtures there are some big-name absentees.
Lifeline
So for Manchester United trio Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Luke Shaw, a fast start to the new Premier League season under new boss Erik ten Hag is their only lifeline to Qatar.
Southgate was hoping for the same from his stars as they began a six-game countdown to the World Cup in Hungary’s noisy Ferenc Puskas Arena in Budapest.
But Hungary refused to lie down. There were warning signs for England with Conor Coady clearing off the line from Dominik Szoboszlai early on and Jordan Pickford almost caught out by a 49-yard punt from the centre circle.
And there was little punch from England in attack with half-time substitute Bukayo Saka going closest just after the break.
The only goal came via a soft penalty after Reece James blocked off Zsolt Nagy and Szoboszlai expertly converted the spot-kick.
England huffed and puffed far too much with the off-key Harry Kane crashing a late shot over and that summed up their woeful night.
And it doesn’t get any easier with old foe Germany lying in wait in Munich on Tuesday.