Hungary’s Dominik Szoboszlai stuns toothless England in Nations League

This was not how Gareth Southgate had envisaged the start of the countdown to the Qatar World Cup. On a night when over 30,000 Hungarian schoolchildren massed into this boisterous arena, blowing their vuvuzelas with their screeching sound from start to finish, England produced one of their worst performances for some time.

England had entered this Nations League opener – nominally to be played behind closed doors because of the bad behaviour of Hungary fans during Euro 2020 but with kids allowed under a Uefa loophole – boasting an intimidating record. Eighteen wins in 22 matches and only one defeat – on penalties to Italy in last summer’s Euro final.

But Southgate’s team had flirted with problems during a first half in which they were second best and they hit the self-destruct button on 66 minutes. Reece James had only just entered as a substitute when he touched a ball back towards Jordan Pickford then worried that he had not put enough on it. He stepped across Zsolt Nagy to make sure that he could not give chase and, although the Hungary player went down softly, it added up to a penalty, mainly on the grounds of clumsiness.

Dominik Szoboszlai scored and, to rapturous acclaim, Hungary were on their way to a first win over England since 1962. England rallied and they went close to an equaliser but they could not dig themselves out. Next up is Germany in Munich on Tuesday and thereafter there are only four more games before Qatar. Southgate had plenty to ponder here.

It was an occasion that felt unique, the children having got in behind the doors – to borrow from the football vernacular – and there were a few eye-rolls when the England players were greeted by boos when they emerged for their warm-up, albeit the chorus was