continue those discussions but most importantly today we focused on the game and got a great result.

“You’ve seen over the last five years we’ve made a stand as a squad and we’ll continue to do that as much as we can. We took the knee today as well but sometimes these decisions aren’t up to us.”

Grealish, who came off the bench to score England’s last goal, was asked if he had a message for the LGBTQ+ community.

“We feel strongly about it. We are with them, we wish they were here with us. At the end of the day, all I can say is we wanted to wear it,” he told ITV.

“Obviously we wanted to wear it. I think it is a bit stupid why we couldn’t. Harry himself wanted to wear it, we all wanted Harry to wear it, but sometimes in life and in football things are out of your control and there’s not much you can do about it.”

The participating nations had been set to wear the armband going into the finals but, with England the first to take to the field, it was their game which garnered the most attention.

Manager Gareth Southgate said he appreciated Fifa’s stance on the matter but that the issue was not going to prove a distraction.

Kane had been due to wear the OneLove armband, while Wales skipper Gareth Bale was set to sport it in the match against the United States.

A suspension is issued after two bookings in this tournament, meaning had either player been booked ahead of kick-off, they would already be walking a tightrope.

BANNED BAND: England skipper Harry Kane had to wear a different captain’s armband under threat from Fifa.