England manager Thomas Tuchel felt that the stands of Wembley Stadium were too quiet, despite his side romping to a 3-0 friendly victory over Wales last night.
Aston Villa duo Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins had England ahead just 11 minutes in, before Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka made it three on the 20 minute mark.
This made it 6 wins from 7 under the German’s stewardship for England, but Tuchel believed that the early domination from the Three Lions warranted a better reception from those in attendance at the national stadium.
“The stadium was silent, we never got any energy back from the fans and I think the players delivered a lot to get more back from the fans”, Tuchel said in his post-match interview with ITV.
“We had top support in Latvia, we had excellent support in Serbia, but today we were 3-0 up after 20 minutes, we had ball win after ball win and I felt “why is the roof still on the stadium?”
There was an estimated 7,000 away fans supporting Craig Bellamy’s Welsh side last night, and the number of empty seats around Wembley has triggered discourse suggesting that the stadium is perhaps too sizeable to be hosting friendlies.
“If you then hear for half an hour just Wales fans, it’s a bit sad because I think the team deserved a big support today.”
England return to competitive action on Tuesday, as they travel to Latvia with hopes of maintaining their 100% win and clean sheet record in World Cup Qualifying. A win for England and favourable results elsewhere will book their ticket to North America next summer already.
