Hungary and Germany signed off their Nations League campaigns until September in style, destroying England and Italy in their respective matches.
Hungary condemned England to their worst loss on home soil since 1928, putting 4 past the home side without a reply.
The win takes Hungary top of League A Group 3 with England at the bottom and in danger of being relegated when the competition resumes in September.
Southgate made nine changes from the team that drew with Italy at the weekend to give some fringe players a chance. But despite dominating possession, England created few chances and the experiment backfired against a Hungary team who had already beaten them in Budapest earlier in the month.
Hungary’s Roland Sallai began the rout when he fired past Aaron Ramsdale in the 16th minute.
He scored a second in the 70th minute with a perfect finish with the outside of his boot before Zsolt Nagy chipped Ramsdale and Daniel Gazdag drove from distance into the corner to add two more to the scoreline.
It was the first time England had lost a home match by four or more goals since March 1928 when Scotland beat them 5-1. And it was the first time an away team had scored four goals against England since the Hungarians themselves won 6-3 in 1953.
For what many see as a yardstick for performance in Qatar, the signs are not good for Southgate’s side who played in the final of a European competition not too long ago.
Germany, meanwhile, got their Nations League campaign back on track thanks to a 5-2 hammering of Italy.
The win snapped a four-game winless run and stretched their unbeaten streak under coach Hansi Flick.
In Germany’s best-attacking performance under Flick, Timo Werner struck twice after goals from Joshua Kimmich, Ilkay Gundogan, and Thomas Mueller had put them in the driving seat.
Teenager Wilfried Gnonto pulled one back in the 78th to become the youngest international scorer for Italy and Alessandro Bastoni headed in a second for the visitors in stoppage time to deny Germany a record margin of a win against the Italians.
This was Germany’s first Nations League win in four matches, and the first for Flick, unbeaten in 13 matches since taking over last year, against a top European nation.
The two teams had previously drawn against each other just 10 days ago.
Germany now sits second in A3 just a point behind the leaders Hungary.
