I don't understand the cause of the dusgruntlement. It was a friendly. And the issue is that...they treated it as a friendly?

Players knackered after a long hard season. Half of them not trained properly since their last Premier League match two weeks earlier.

When was the last time England played sparkling football in a friendly - in June?

I would shake up international football, though. Exclude any players from international selection who were registered with their clubs for the Champions League, that season. And scrap the Europa League and Conference League altogether.

Then the non-UCL national team might show a bit more interest - like Wales, for instance.