Gareth Southgate begs fans not to embarrass his side in Germany

Gareth Southgate has pleaded with England’s travelling support not to embarrass the nation ahead of tomorrow’s game in Germany. 

The FA have sold 3,466 tickets for the Nations League fixture at the Allianz Arena, but thousands more are expected to travel to Munich, raising fears of clashes.

When asked whether violent incidents involving England fans affects the team, Southgate replied: ‘Yes, it definitely has an impact. Staff are working on things which detract from the main part of their job.

‘Because of the landscape at the moment, the spotlight is going to be on, so we want to be coming away talking about a brilliant night and about good football and a stunning atmosphere. We don’t have any control over that, we can only ask that’s what our fans deliver.’

Meanwhile, the Hungarian FA are expected to escape punishment from UEFA despite the booing of England players taking the knee in Saturday’s 1-0 loss in Budapest. 

The game was part of a two-match stadium ban for Hungary due to the behaviour of their fans during Euro 2020. 

But it was played in front of 36,000 as there was no limit on the number of schoolchildren invited to the match free of charge — with one adult accompanying every 10 children. 

England are implementing a similar programme for their behind-closed-doors game against Italy at Molineux on Saturday, but have limited the numbers to 3,000 children. That ban was imposed because of the chaos at Wembley for the Euro 2020 final.