England controversy as Del Piero confuses player for Wright-Phillips

Press conference with England manager Gareth Southgate following their 1-0 Nations League defeat to Italy in Milan

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Italy legend Alessandro Del Piero sparked controversy on Friday night as he appeared to confuse one of England’s players for Shaun Wright-Phillips. The Three Lions were defeated 1-0 by the Azzurri at the San Siro in Milan as they were relegated from the top tier of the Nations League.

Del Piero, who won 91 caps for his country, was in town to provide punditry for Channel 4’s coverage of the showdown. And following a drab first half, the 47-year-old attempted to explain where Italy’s chances had come from at half-time. “All the times that England try to come out, we press high very well,” said the former Juventus star. “We’ve had a couple of counter-attacks especially when Wright-Phillips lost the ball and [we’re] anticipating in that way.”

Del Piero went on to elucidate that England had been giving the ball away on the left, which led some fans to believe he had confused Wright-Phillips for either Bukayo Saka or Raheem Sterling. Saka had started the match at left wing-back, while Sterling lined up on the left of a front three.

And following the comments, former Premier League star Stan Collymore called out the blunder. “Nice to see Del Piero’s punditry on Wright-Phillips’ involvement for England that half,” he wrote on Twitter.

Wright-Phillips played 36 times for England and was part of the Three Lions’ 2010 World Cup squad. But his last England appearance came in October 2010 and he officially retired from the sport three years ago.

England’s clash in Milan didn’t get much better after the interval, with Italy coming out on top courtesy of Giacomo Raspadori’s stunning strike in the 68th minute. The result means that Gareth Southgate’s team haven’t won any of their last five games – their worst run in more than eight years.

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But following the encounter, the England manager refused to take aim at his players. “It’s difficult for me to be too critical of the performance,” said the former defender. “We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target. For large parts of the game we played very well.

“It’s a spell where ultimately results are going to be the thing that everyone reacts to but I thought there were a lot of positives for us as a team tonight. Lots of good individual performances. I personally thought the performance is a step in the right direction. I completely understand because of the result that is not going to be the reaction.”

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