England’s 4-0 victory was soured by predictably vile behaviour among the home support
England coasted to a 4-0 away win over Hungary on Thursday night, with goals coming from Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Declan Rice.
The first half was mostly a scrappy affair, played on a bobbly surface, which provided very little to write home about other than the hostile atmosphere exhibited before kick-off when England’s players were booed while taking the knee.
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring 10 minutes into the second half, finishing off a brilliant move down the left for England. Declan Rice recovered the ball and quickly found Jack Grealish, at which point the tireless Mason Mount overlapped before cutting the ball back for Sterling to tap into the gaping net.
Brilliant work from Rice, Grealish and Mount in the build up to Sterling’s opening goal and a lovely finish 👏 pic.twitter.com/8J8DAbxMZu
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 2, 2021
Sterling celebrated by unveiling a message to his recently deceased friend, Steffie Gregg. Unfortunately, this heartfelt moment for Sterling was somewhat spoilt by Hungarian supporters pelting him with plastic cups.
In response to this abusive behaviour, Declan Rice mimed drinking out of a cup.
Long live @_DeclanRice forever and always ❤️ pic.twitter.com/t2gEZx5YMT
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 2, 2021
Goals from Harry Maguire and Declan Rice in the second half made it 4-0, as England rounded off a dominant performance to bounce back from their Euro 2020 heartbreak.
But the positives from the performance were tarnished by monkey chants heard from behind the goal.
ITV’s Gabriel Clarke, say behind the goal in Budapest, reported during the game that Hungary fans had aimed monkey chants at Sterling as well as unused substitute Jude Bellingham while he was warming up on the touchline.
Captain Harry Kane said after the game that he would speak to his teammates to see if they heard such taunts, and that if they did, he hoped UEFA (or FIFA) would come down hard on the culprits.
