Riot Police Forced to Intervene After Incident in Stands During England vs Serbia
The incident occurred during the second half in Belgrade.
Featured Image Credit: ITV
Topics: England, Serbia, FIFA World Cup, Football
Ryan Smart
Topics: England, Serbia, FIFA World Cup, Football
Riot police were forced to intervene after an incident in the crowd during England's World Cup qualifier against Serbia.
The incident occurred during the second half of the match, with Thomas Tuchel's side 3-0 up in Belgrade.
After a crowd disturbance was noted by the ITV commentary team, reporter Gabriel Clarke revealed that families and children had to be moved away in the main stand.
"It was rather unnerving for a few minutes as a few Serbian fans ran across that stand," Clarke said. "There was families involved as well, and children had to be moved on.
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"It was Serbian fans arguing among themselves, a political dispute. Pro and anti-government sentiments.
"The police have moved in and calmed that incident down. So hopefully nothing more to report on that."
The incident did not involve any England fans, it is reported, who are situated in a separate part of the stadium.
The match had to be briefly stopped by French referee Clement Turpin before play then resumed.
Earlier in the match, Serbia fans chanted about neighbouring Kosovo.
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state and the two nations are kept away from playing each other in international competitions.
On the pitch, England eased into a three-goal lead through goals from captain Harry Kane, Noni Madueke and Ezri Konsa.
Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi then made it 4-0 with a close-range finish in what could prove to be an important night for England under Tuchel's reign.
Marcus Rashford scored a fifth goal in stoppage time, with 5-0 the final score on the night.
The Three Lions have won all of their World Cup qualifiers thus far but the performance against Serbia has arguably been their strongest yet under the German boss.
England were never troubled by minnows Andorra on Saturday but only managed two goals in a 2-0 win.
Speaking ahead of the Serbia game, Tuchel told ITV: "We had our learnings in the first two camps especially, then a big pause, and now it's World Cup season, which feels a bit different.
"We have to improve. I mean, this is part of football, that we are never satisfied as coaches. The perfect game does not exist, the perfect week does not exist.
"There's a lot to do. I think that we took the right conclusions from the first two camps, where we experimented a lot with formations, experimented a lot with combinations of players on the pitch. Now, we've narrowed down our long list, we've narrowed down the squad, and we'll continue like this.
"The group is excellent in camp, and we will show that we're on the right path."