STAR PREVIEW Tues: England v Hungary

England’s journey to the final of Euro 2020 was only three months ago but the next World Cup is coming up fast and the Three Lions can take a big step towards booking their place with victory over Hungary at Wembley this evening.

An easy victory in Andorra on Sunday means that England have a four point lead over second place Albania in Group I with two games to go – and the last of them comes against San Marino – so whilst Gareth Southgate isn’t one to get ahead of himself, it’s fair to say that England have a foot in the finals.

Southgate will have been most pleased with the performances of a much changes side on Sunday, especially with Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho impressing – and he’s got a huge number of options available for tonight’s return to Wembley.

It looks likely that Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Declan Rice and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford will return to the fold tonight, and that spells trouble for a Hungary side who were blown away by England in September despite an extremely hostile home support.

It took England a long time to get going – they’d disappointed in the first half – but once Raheem Sterling had scored his eighteenth goal for England it was one way traffic from then on, with goals from Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Declan Rice all leading to a fully deserved 4-0 win.

It could have been more – Kane and Sterling missed clear chances, and for England to win the shot count 12-4 and the shots on target count 8-1 was impressive considering the game was 0-0 at half time.

England v Hungary
FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifier
19:45 ITV 1 HD / ITV Hub

HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
SEP 2021 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS Hungary 0-4 England
AUG 2010 FRIENDLY England 2-1 Hungary
MAY 2006 FRIENDLY England 3-1 Hungary
APR 1999 FRIENDLY Hungary 1-1 England
MAY 1962 WORLD CUP Hungary 2-1 England

Hungary have struggled since their Euro 2020 exploits, with England winning 4-0 before they lost 1-0 to Albania in Tirol, edged past Andorra 2-1 in Budapest and then were beaten once again by Albania behind closed doors.

The absence of their captain and talisman Adam Szalai is a hammer blow whilst a suspension for Endre Botka and injury for Attila Fiola have seen Hungary’s defence weakened.

England should prove to be too strong once again – hopefully with a quicker start under their belt – and they can pass a two goal handicap at 13/10. It may also be worth be worth dutching 3-0 and 4-0 correct scores – England have conceded just 2 goals in the qualifying stage so far and they conceded only 2 goals during Euro 2020, those coming in the semi-final and final.

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