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Ashley Cole Said England Faced A 'Hungary Team Who Were Hungry' In 'World Class Punditry'

Ashley Cole Said England Faced A 'Hungary Team Who Were Hungry' In 'World Class Punditry'

Cole was a part of Channel 4's broadcast.

Ashley Cole said England came up against a 'Hungary team who were hungry' following their 4-0 defeat in the Nations League.

Gareth Southgate's side slumped to their biggest home loss since 1928 at Molineux and they're now bottom of their Nations League group with two points and zero wins.

Hungary, meanwhile, have taken six points out of their two games with the Three Lions and showed great energy in both.

Cole was asked about their performance on Channel 4 and came back with a clique that we've definitely all said before.

The former Chelsea left-back declared: "I thought they come up against a Hungary team... who was very hungry."

He continued: "They had the desire, I don't know when they last won in England, 1953? So it was a big occasion for them.

"I thought they played well, they were well organised, disciplined, they made it very hard for England.

"If you have three or four players off form like I said, you get punished."

Southgate went with a younger team after making nine changes from Saturday's 0-0 draw with Italy, but they lacked an attacking edge.

A goal in either half from Roland Sallai put Hungary on course for victory, but they were helped by England's capitulation in the final 10 minutes.

Zsolt Nagy made it 3-0 in the 80th minute before John Stones was sent off three minutes later.

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Alamy

England attempted to shut up shop by bringing on Harry Maguire for Bukayo Saka, which brought chants of "You don't know what you're doing" from the home end.

Daniel Gazdag dinked in a fourth late on though and boos rung around the stadium as the final whistle went.

Pressure continues to build on Southgate, who guided England to the final of Euro 2020 just 11 months ago.

"It’s a chastening night," the 51-year-old said post-match. "We’ve not lost many matches and when you lose so heavily with England it’s going to be very, very painful.

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Alamy

"I feel for [the players] because, in the two Hungary games in particular, I picked teams where I tried to balance the squad, give young players opportunities, and I didn’t get the balance right for them to perform at the level they needed to win those matches."

England will resume their Nations League campaign on September 23 against Italy.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 4 and Alamy

Topics: England, Ashley Cole