Lack of crowd noise a bit sad, says England coach Tuchel

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LONDON - England head coach Thomas Tuchel has never been slow to speak his mind and the German turned his ire on the Wembley fans on Thursday, criticising them for being too quiet in a comfortable 3-0 friendly win against Wales.

The mood was buoyant as goals by Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka in the opening 20 minutes made England's eighth successive win over the Welsh a formality.

With the game petering out in the second half, many England fans opted to leave early, some launched paper aeroplanes and it was only the loud away contingent who created any noise.

"We had one-and-a-half training days to prepare against a well-trained team and we did very well," Tuchel said. "We had an excellent first half, we were 3-0 up very quickly, but we could have been 4-0 up at halftime.

"Then we couldn't score, the fourth one, the fifth one, the stadium was silent, we never got any energy back from the fans. I think the players delivered a lot to get more from the stands.

"What more can you give them? Twenty minutes, three goals, and the way we attacked Wales, and they didn't let them escape, even from their own half, and it was ball-win after ball-win.

"If you're here for half an hour, it's just Wales fans. Yeah, so a bit sad, because I think the team deserved big support today."

England face Latvia away on Tuesday when victory could secure their automatic place in next year's World Cup. REUTERS

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