Hungary 1-0 England: Nations League – live! | Nations League

FULL TIME: Hungary 1-0 England

90 min +4: Some hitherto unnoticed admin. Maguire is retrospectively booked for a tug on Sallai, while James saw yellow for a yank on Szoboszlai.

90 min +3: Phillips swings one in from the right. There are a lot of England players in the box. The cross goes nowhere near any of them.

90 min +2: Phillips knocks Kleinheisler to the floor from behind. Another daft foul that allows Hungary to do the clock-management thing.

90 min +1: A bit of space for James out on the right. His low cross initially looks dangerous, but Attila Szalai is on point to hack clear.

90 min: James shoves Adam in the back, and it’s a chance for the Hungarian sub to roll around on the floor, eating up some time. Every second counts, because there will be five extra minutes.

89 min: Grealish makes a complete nuisance of himself down the inside-left channel. He tries to one-two with Kane. It doesn’t come off, but the ball ricochets back to Kane, who absolutely larrups a first-time shot into the side netting. A good proportion of the stadium fell quiet there, thinking the England captain had netted his 50th international goal at a very opportune moment. But no.

88 min: Two more changes for Hungary, as Zsolt Nagy and the captain Szalai are replaced by Adam and Vecsei.

86 min: England passes aren’t sticking. A lot of frowning and frantic gesticulation going on as a rare defeat looms.

84 min: James slips Kane into the Hungary box down the inside-right channel. Kane sends an uncharacteristically weak whip into Gulacsi’s midriff at the near post.

83 min: Two changes for Hungary, as Adam Nagy and Szoboszlai are replaced by Fiola and Callum Styles of Barnsley, born in Bury but eligible for Hungary through his grandparents.

81 min: Hungary should be two up. Szalai has a chance to put Schafer clear down the middle. Perhaps he knows something, because he turns down the chance to ping his man clear, and instead waits for Kleinheisler, in acres on the right. Kleinheisler romps into the England box, drops a shoulder, and shoots. Pickford parries well, but the ball drops to Schafer, ten yards out and unmarked. Schafer leans back and hoicks miles over the empty net. What a miss!

79 min: That’s Coady’s last act of the evening, as England sacrifice a defender for a midfielder in Phillips.

77 min: Bowen is bowled over down the right by Attila Szalai, allowing James to swing a dangerous free kick into the box. Coady glances a header wide left from close range. The width of a lick of paint in that. As close as England have come.

75 min: Time for Maguire on the ball. No options. He tries to release James down the right but his pass flies harmlessly out of play. “Trent Alexander-Arnold has got to be feeling better about being subbed now,” opines Bill Jones. That TAA/James dynamic also applies to ITV and Channel 4, one could argue at this particular moment in time.

73 min: Kane makes a nuisance of himself in the Hungary box, and the ball breaks to Bellingham, who tries to force a shot goalwards. Gulacsi claims again, but this is better from England. Where has this England been since the break?

72 min: Maguire rakes a lovely long left-to-right diagonal pass for Bowen, who meets it on the volley just inside the Hungarian box. Straight at Gulacsi, though, and without pace. Easy for the keeper.

71 min: Hungary make their first change of the evening, a like-for-like swap that removes Sallai and replaces him with Kleinheisler.

70 min: That was a soft penalty all right … but it was a penalty. Nagy was wily, James not so clever. England will have to step it up if they’re to salvage anything from this, because one fine Saka dribble and shot apart, they’ve done nothing to worry the hosts since the break.

68 min: England are currently 22 games unbeaten, if you exclude the penalty shoot-out in the Euro 2020 final. The last team to beat them in 90 minutes was Belgium, in the Nations League in November 2020.

GOAL! Hungary 1-0 England (Szoboszlai 66 pen)

Penalty for Hungary!

62 min: England make a triple change. Alexander-Arnold, Walker and Mount are replaced by James, Stones and Grealish.

61 min: In the centre circle, Rice nearly kicks the ball up into his own face. England play on regardless and win a corner down the right. Alexander-Arnold takes long, and Maguire sends the ball harmlessly wide left off the top of his head. Not exactly a banner moment for England.

59 min: Mount’s corner is half cleared to Bowen, who peals a shot well over the bar from the edge of the box.

58 min: England suddenly break through Bowen and Kane. Mount is slipped into the box on the left. He shoots. Lang blocks out for a corner. Mount to take.

57 min: Hungary are doing a pretty good job of keeping England pinned back in their final third right now, but the final ball is lacking.

55 min: Nego pearls a shot towards goal from 25 yards. It pings off the tip of Maguire’s elbow. Hungary want a corner, but come on and come off it. Maguire had done a very good job in tucking his arm into his body, and the referee isn’t interested in the slightest.

54 min: Zsolt Nagy, running at full pelt, controls an overhit pass on the white line and tears past Walker, no mean feat. Sadly for the hosts, he runs out of pitch. Goal kick. Nagy was very close to making something out of next to nothing there.

52 min: Coady goes into the book after coming through the back of Szalai. Ah, Wolverhampton Wanderers versus the Hungarians!

51 min: Saka dribbles with purpose down the inside-left channel and into the box. He shoots from a tight angle. Gulacsi kicks clear. That was a fine, direct, incisive run from the Arsenal man.

49 min: Space for Nego down the right. He nearly releases Szoboszlai into the box, but Bellingham does just enough to block his run. Then Hungary come again, Sallai meeting a long ball down the left by cushioning a header back for Zsolt Nagy, who creams a low diagonal drive not too far wide of the right-hand post. Pickford had it covered.

47 min: A low-key start to the half.

England get the second half underway. Poor injury-plagued Justin has been replaced by Saka.

Half-time postbag. “I appreciate the trade off that is Alexander-Arnold’s attacking threat with his defensive vulnerability, but I don’t see how the former would be diminished if someone just taught him to look over his shoulder when he is defending a cross from the opposite side of the field, facing his own goal. That’s just basic full-back stuff, checking in case there is someone coming on your outside, and wouldn’t stop him getting up the other end of the field in any way. Yet it would prevent goals like in the Champions League final, and that was almost repeated by Hungary just now. Refusing (or not being able) to do that is like England batters stubbornly insisting ‘that’s just the way I play’ when they get out having a swing at a completely unsuitable delivery” – David Wall.

“‘Maguire’s inner Ronaldinho’ is the most jarringly incongruous-sounding phrase I’ve read in a Guardian football live blog since ‘Vertonghen bicycle kick’ (well off target) in yesterday’s coverage of Belgium v Netherlands” – Peter Oh.

HALF TIME: Hungary 0-0 England

45 min: There will be one bonus first-half minute.

44 min: “Thirty thousand children?” splutters Peter Oh. “Can you imagine the chaos in the ice-cream line at halftime?”

42 min: Now Hungary take their turn to knock it hither and yon along their back line. A sense that both sides are thinking about their half-time slices of orange.

40 min: England ping it about the back in the patient style.

38 min: Maguire channels his inner Ronaldinho and wins a corner down the left with a determined run. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. England have played fairly well, but have yet to work Gulacsi in any meaningful way.

37 min: Nego delivers another lovely cross from the right. Szoboszlai gets in ahead of Walker at the far stick, but flaps his wrong foot at the ball and slices it pitifully wide. England get away with one.

35 min: The first lull of what has been a high-tempo game.

33 min: Bowen races down the right and cuts back in the hope of finding Kane in the six-yard box. Not quite. He’s been impressively busy on debut so far.

32 min: Hungary nearly take the lead in sensational style! Szalai steals possession in the centre circle and feeds Szalai, who spots Pickford off his line and bombs it like Beckham. The ball bounces inches wide of the left-hand post with the England keeper in no-man’s land.

30 min: Nothing comes of the resulting corner. Hungary have looked dangerous on the break, though, opening England up on a couple of occasions with crisp exchanges.