England are staring at the prospect of relegation from UEFA Nations League Group A3 after suffering their worst home loss since 1928 with a 4-0 defeat to Hungary at Molineux on Tuesday.
Roland Sallai found the net in both halves to propel the visitors to their first away win against England since a famous 6-3 win at Wembley in 1953. England’s misery was compounded in the final 10 minutes as Zsolt Nagy and Daniel Gazdag scored further goals and John Stones was shown a second yellow card to make it one of the worst nights of Gareth Southgate’s reign.
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England remain winless and bottom of their Nations League group with two points from four games, including a 1-0 defeat to Hungary in the reverse fixture earlier this month. Hungary top the group on seven points, ahead of Germany and Italy. The group winners go to the Nations League finals next June while the bottom team are relegated.
England captain Harry Kane, who provided some of England’s few moments of quality and hit the bar with a header, acknowledged his side’s second-half capitulation was “unacceptable” but urged fans to be forgiving.
“It’s our first big defeat in a long time. It’s not time to panic, it’s time to keep our heads up,” he said.
“We have to take it on the chin and move forward, prepare for the World Cup, we’ll learn a lot … Let’s not forget where we’ve come from. It’s not going to be perfect every game.”
After reaching the semifinals of the last World Cup in Russia then narrowly losing last year’s Euros to Italy, England have high hopes for the Qatar World Cup at the end of this year. But their dismal form in the Nations League has baffled fans and saw boos ringing out as they traipsed off the Molineux pitch.
It was the first time England had lost a home match by four or more goals since March 1928 when Scotland beat them 5-1.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.