Gareth Southgate’s team produced a flat performance in defeat despite a far less hostile environment than on their last visit to Hungary
amid the most unpleasant circumstances in September and might have expected a repeat in front of more than 30,000 energised youngsters. But a highly unusual setting brought what, by recent standards, was a thoroughly singular outcome: a no-show from Gareth Southgate’s players and a ripple in what had been a largely smooth path to Qatar.
England had never played to such a shrill, youthful and multicoloured backdrop. A more familiar sight at Hungary’s home games is the black-clad mass of ultras behind the goal, named the Carpathian Brigade, whose misdemeanours during Euro 2020 brought this game’s staging under special measures. This time pockets of minors wearing lime green, yellow, blue, whatever stripe represented their school or club, occupied those spots along with their accompanying adults.
A lone England flag flew briefly, for some reason, in the lower tier: beneath the gauze that, covering a section of seating, read “Hatred is not in the field of play” in Hungarian. But the away side were otherwise alone and that need not have been too vexing. They are five months from a World Cup to which traditional supporters may not flock, in a country with little football culture of its own.