The three lions suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hungary in Budapest on Saturday. A second-half penalty goal by Dominik Szoboszlai was enough to give the Hungarians the three points as they sit on top of group A3 of the nations league with 3 points.
England is in the same group as Germany and European Champions Italy. The defeat to Hungary ended Garth Southgate’s side’s 21 matches unbeaten run, which is the longest in the nation’s history.
Despite the three lions dominating the match with 57 percent possession, they failed to create clear-cut chances. Something Garth Southgate lamented after the game and also labeled the Penalty decision awarded to Hungary as harsh.
Referee Soares Dias A. awarded a penalty to Hungary in the 66th minute after Reece James was accused of fouling Nagy in the Penalty. a decision Garth Southgate deems harsh and unfair.
What did Southgate say about the Reece James Penalty incident?
Speaking with Channel 4, Southgate said: “We have to accept we didn’t do enough to win the game. A draw would’ve been fair, we had enough possession, we weren’t incisive around the box, and we didn’t create too many clear-cut chances.
“It’s been a long season, but I haven’t seen that in training. The heat was a factor that took a lot out of the players and we tried to refresh the team a bit earlier than we would do normally.
“That balance of finding out about new things, and the consistent more regular team, I’ve got to look at whether I got that balance quite right.
“I don’t want to be too harsh on the players, these are games we need to learn from. They’re bitterly disappointed, they want to win matches and if we want to be a team right at the top tier of world football, we have to come here and win.”
Southgate also slammed Hungary fans who booed the England players when they took the knee.
Garth Southgate added: “The first thing, that taking the knee is why we do it, to try to educate people around the world.
“I have no idea why people would choose to boo the gesture. The young people can’t know why they are doing it so they are being influenced by older adults.
“The Uefa decision is for other people to decide. We have made our stand as a team, everyone knows what we believe in and stand for, it is a night where I need to focus on football.”
Meanwhile, Michael Owen also shared the same sentiments with Garth Southgate claiming the Penalty decision was harsh.
He said: “I think it was harsh.
“I still think he’s (James) a little bit at fault, I don’t think he needs to put his arm across his man. The long diagonal was a thorn in our side throughout the game.
“I know what he’s trying to do, he’s just trying to block his man so Jordan Pickford can come and clear. I’m not sure he needs to do it. But I think it’s a very harsh penalty. I don’t think there’s enough there. I think he’s made the most of it.”
Jordan Nobbs also thought the contact was minimal and the penalty decision was wrong.
“I can understand there’s a tiny bit of contact, but it’s way too harsh considering he got the ball first and then he’s just putting his body on the line.”
