Connect with us
UEFA

International Football

Twitter reacts as Hungary hold England after crowd trouble at Wembley

Published

on

It was a frustrating night for England / BEN STANSALL/GettyImages

England inched closer to 2022 World Cup qualification despite being held to a 1-1 draw by Hungary at Wembley on Tuesday night.

Passions were always likely to run high following the abuse suffered by England’s black players in the reverse fixture in Budapest last month, but no-one was expecting tensions to boil over so soon after kick off.

After a banner against taking the knee was held aloft in the away end, police entered the section during the opening minutes to “arrest a spectator for a racially aggravated public order offence following comments made towards a steward”. However, they were met with violence, with TV images showing the Hungarian supporters and police exchanging blows in the stands.

Thankfully order was quickly restored, with no subsequent flare-ups in the crowd, so attentions returned to the action on the pitch.

From an England perspective, it wasn’t great.

Midway through the first half, left-back Luke Shaw needlessly went for a high ball with his boot and caught his man on the head. Penalty to the visitors.

Advertisement
UEFA

Shaw was booked and Roland Sallai made no mistake from the penalty spot.

Within 15 minutes the Three Liones were level, though. With John Stones reacting fastest to poke home a rebound from close-range – one of five Man City players in the starting 11 for England, a club record.

There had been a bit of a buzz before kick off after England manager Gareth Southgate named an attacking side, including Phil Foden and Mason Mount in central midfield.

However, while it looked good on paper it never really came together on the pitch. Cue the inevitable Gerrard-Lampard comparison as the second half wore on.

-90min

Advertisement
UEFA

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: