England boss Gareth Southgate believes that heat was the main factor behind their Nations League defeat to Hungary in Budapest. Dominik Szoboszlai scored the only goal of the game for the hosts in the 67th minute. The match was watched by more than 30,000 fans who booed the England players for taking a knee before the match. Jarrod Bowen was the most threatening player for the home side on his debut.
“I think we knew it was going to be a very difficult game. We’ve had difficult games with them, with Hungary, as other big nations have had. They’re very difficult to break down,” England boss Gareth Southgate said. “We probably lacked a half-yard I would say, in terms of our real incisiveness. I think that was more the heat than the length of the season. The other factor is, that we haven’t played together for three months and we have had three games in six months.”
“Across these four games, we are trying to balance having a look at things, finding out about players, and trying to win,” he added. “Maybe I didn’t quite get the balance of that right today but we’ve learned a lot from it and I have to accept you are not going to win matches and you’ve got to ride the criticism that comes from it with the learning that should help us further down the line. We are disappointed because if we’re going to be a team that gets to the final stages of a World Cup, these are the types of games that we have to win. We have a pretty good idea of what our strongest team probably is now. Quite a few of those players are coming not from ideal preparation.”
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