Southgate warns England players to avoid antagonizing opposition fans

Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham were reportedly subjected to racist chants during England’s World Cup qualifier against Hungary. The Three Lions crushed their opponents with a 4-0 result, with a number of England players celebrating in front of Hungary fans after the game. 

Declan Rice

and

Jack Grealish

were seen pretending to drink from some of the plastic cups that had been thrown toward the English players during the game.

The Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate criticizes the actions of the Hungary fans but says his players must avoid provoking their rivals’ fans.

“We needed to be a little bit careful in how our interaction with the crowd the other day was,”

he said.

“We all recognise that certain things that happened weren’t acceptable but also we ran a little bit of a risk of inflaming some of those situations.

“The boys just have to have in the back of their minds that humility. We were playing well and we got a good result but let’s keep our professionalism, our focus. We’re going to have to play these teams again and we don’t want to give them any additional motivation with our actions.”

The Hungarian FA has issued two-year suspensions for the supporters who disrupted the match, but they are yet to react to the alleged racist abuse.

England must face Andorra in their next World Cup qualifier on Sunday. Southgate says his side must use every game to improve their performances.

“If we want to be serious contenders for the World Cup we cannot waste a moment,”

he added.

“We cannot miss an opportunity to improve.

“The teams that didn’t do so well in the summer will be licking their wounds and looking at everything. There’s a risk that they look harder for those opportunities to improve. If we have any complacency that would be an error. We’ve got talent and we have shown positive performances and earned good results. But that can disappear very quickly.”

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