England loses 4 – 0 to Hungary in Nations League Match

On Tuesday, June 14^th, 2022 the English national football club suffered their worst home loss since the year of 1928 as the national football club of Hungary defeated England last Tuesday with a final tally of 4 – 0 in a Nations League match.

Less than only 1 – year after making it all the way to the European Championship Finals on home turf causing spectacular and raucous celebrations by their supporters, England was booed by their own home side fans after a serious loss to an average at best team in Hungary who succeeded in finalizing a double following them upsetting England just around 1 – week ago.

In other Nations League action, the European champion in Italy had it slightly better as they were beaten by the national team of Germany with a final score of 5 – 2.

England’s final game of the lengthy and complicated 2021 – 2022 European football season will generate a great deal of reflection prior to the 2022 World Cup which will be played in the home nation of Qatar in approximately 5 – months from now. England’s head coach in Gareth Southgate, who was a national hero during Euro 2020, had to sit through chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing.”

England’s Captain Speaks Out

“It’s our first big defeat in a long time,” the captain of England’s football club, Harry Kane, expressed to the local sports media world following England’s devastating loss to Hungary last Tuesday, June 14^th, 2022. “Our defense has been the structure behind our success over the last four or five years. It was a night to forget of course but we’ve got to take it on the chin and move forward.

Kane goes on to say, “At the end of the day we’re preparing for what’s going to be a big World Cup. That’s the most important thing. We’ll learn from it.”

When asked if Southgate remains the right individual to coach England’s national football club, Kane replied, “Without any question.That’s not a question I should even be answering if I’m honest.”

Racist Incidents involving Hungary

There was a whole lot of tension leading up to the contest last Tuesday, June 14^th, 2022 as the game kicked off while the fans of England drowned out the Hungarian national anthem with a distracting chant that was in reference to Hungary’s long – history of racist abuse of their players by fans. Hungary was ultimately punished by FIFA as well as UEFA for several incidents regarding racism in matches last year, one in which just so happened to include English players being were racially abused.

The Game Play: Hungary vs. England

Hungary had been holding on tightly to their 1 – 0 advantage for the majority of the game. This lead came from Roland Sallai’s early goal score for Hungary, prior to England’s national team completely falling apart during the latter stages of the contest. Sallai then made it 2 to 0 during the 70^th – minute of game action right before Zsolt Nagy fired in a nasty strike from the edge of the box that put Hungary in front of England with the score of 3 to 0 at that point.

England’s defender John Stones was eventually sent off for a 2^nd – booking following what appeared to be very minimal contact with an opponent and Daniel Gazdag put the cherry on top when he added a 4^th – goal for Hungary’s national team at the end of this Nations League match that Hungary definitely dominated.

A great deal of England’s footballers that played in this game showed absolute indications of being physically and possibly even mentally fatigued following their long 2021 – 2022 European football season, with very little fight in the resistance of the densely constructed strong Hungarian formation. The English midfielder, Kalvin Phillips, definitely revealed signs of being distraught when he easily gave away a possession just prior to the 2^nd – goal for Hungary.

This game marked England’s largest home loss since being destroyed by Scotland with the final score of 5 to 1 a long 94 – years ago in the past. Other losses to Hungary seem quite relevant in the history of English football as they continuously struggle when facing off against Hungary on the pitch. A 6 to 3 home loss way back in 1953 as well as an embarrassing 7 to 1 loss away the next year played a huge role in shaking England’s perception of themselves as one of the pre – eminent football clubs of that era.

Following no wins and just 1 – goal over the course of 4 – Nations League matches caused manager Gareth Southgateto defend his decision to rotate England’s line – up and grant some of the fringe players on his team roster more playing time lately.

England’s manager Gareth Southgate had this to say after the loss to Hungary…

… “In the end (of Tuesday’s game), you’re pushing and you’ve got so many attacking players on that we’ve left ourselves wide open. I’ve just said to the players there, across the four matches, that’s my responsibility,” the manager of England’s football club, Gareth Southgate, disclosed to the Channel 4 sports media representatives that were present after England’s loss to Hungary in the Nations League this week. “We’ve tried to balance looking at new players and trying to rest players that we couldn’t keep flogging, our more experienced and better players.”

Sources:

The Associated Press News Services. “England slumps to historic loss to Hungary in Nations League”. The Associated Press. June 14, 2022.