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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Glen Williams

England national anthem 'butchered' as players baffled and fans slam 'worst ever' rendition

England fans were left angry and confused by the rendition of 'God Save the King' ahead of their clash with Italy on Thursday night.

As Gareth Southgate's men lined up to sing the anthem at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, the singer produced an odd rendition of the song which appeared to be out of sync with the ground's public address system.

It left fans watching on at home on Channel 4 perplexed, with many taking to social media to vent their views.

Former Tottenham midfielder and outspoken talkSPORT pundit Jamie O'Hara tweeted: "Wow national anthem was a shambles." Others labelled the way in which the anthem was sung a "disgrace", "embarrassing" and "the worst ever".

Players on the pitch were also visibly confused, too, with Jude Bellingham, Kyle Walker and Bukayo Saka all glancing in the direction of Italian-American singer Ellynora as she sang the anthem. Ellynora made a false start to the song, which threw the rest of the anthem out of kilter, with some singing ahead and others waiting for her to catch up. It made for quite farcical viewing.

One social media user said: "She absolutely butchered it."

"Wow. Got to be the worst national anthem performance I’ve ever watched," another wrote.

"National anthem ruined. Nice one," another posted.

For England, they will just be happy things worked out better once the referee's whistle blew to start the match.

Southgate's side took a commanding 2-0 lead into half-time thanks to first-half goals from Declan Rice and Harry Kane, who became England's all-time leading goalscorer in the process, surpassing Wayne Rooney as he moved on to 54 strikes for his country.

The Italians pulled one back through Mateo Retegui, however England managed to hold on despite a red card time minutes from time for Luke Shaw, to claim all three points which sees them sit atop Group C of their Euro 2024 qualifying group after just one game.

Wales are in action on Saturday as they take on Croatia in Split before welcoming Latvia to Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday.

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