Southgate ‘surprised’ crowd in Hungary could hit 35,000

Gareth Southgate has admitted his surprise at the number of Hungary supporters who are expected to attend England’s Nations League match in Budapest, which is taking place “behind closed doors”.

As many as 35,000 supporters are expected at the Puskas Arena due to Uefa loopholes that allow children to attend with an adult, despite the governing body ordering the match to be played behind closed doors as punishment for racial abuse.

The loophole means the Puskas Arena could be half-full today and Southgate hopes the occasion will help to educate “the next generation” of football supporters in Hungary.

England will also be taking the opportunity to allow children into their behind-closed-doors match against Italy next week, but will be limiting the number to around 2,000. “I think we are all surprised,” Southgate said of the size of the expected crowd in Budapest.

“But we are inviting children into our stadium, so I wasn’t really clear on the rules at the start of all of this. I don’t know what the figure should be or shouldn’t be.

“Other people have got to deal with that. We have got to make sure that we are consistent in our beliefs, the stand we take as a team, the fact

that we are united on it being unacceptable and it is for other people to administer sanctions. The young people in the stadium hopefully pick that message up tomorrow. ”

Harry Kane is expected to start in Southgate’s attack as he continues his pursuit of England’s all-time goalscoring record.

Kane is only four behind Wayne Rooney’s tally of 53 international goals and he said he wanted to break that record “as soon as possible”.

The 28-year-old spoke recently of his belief that he could be an effective kicker in American football and yesterday joked that his ideal career would be to win the World Cup, a Super Bowl and then the Green Jacket at the Masters. Kane is in a far more settled mindset than at this time last year, when he was angling for a move away from Tottenham Hotspur.

Southgate believes England will benefit from the captain having more clarity over his future. “Going into these games, I feel confident,” Kane said.

“We had a good finish as a team [with Spurs] towards the end of the season and I had a good season personally.” Kane did warn, however, that leading players would pick up more injuries due to the increasingly busy fixture schedule as he said that a three-week break was not enough to fully recover ahead of the new season.

“It is difficult,” Kane said. “For sure, I feel like three weeks off isn’t enough time to recover mentally and physically.”