ENGLAND fell to a first home defeat in two years as out-of-sorts Harry Maguire’s sending off was compounded by Denmark centurion Christian Eriksen scoring a controversially-awarded penalty.

Three days on from impressively coming back to beat Belgium to go top of their Nations League group, Gareth Southgate’s men stumbled to a first defeat on home soil since September 2018.

Eriksen’s penalty shortly after Maguire received two bookings in 31 wretched minutes were the key moments at an empty Wembley, where Denmark held on for a 1-0 win against visibly-frustrated England.

That frustration boiled over after the match, with referee Jesus Gil Manzano sending off impressive full debutant Reece James for dissent.

It was a galling end to October’s triple-header, with the post-match focus sure to be on discipline and Maguire after his nightmare performance continued a testing period on and off the field.

The 27-year-old has started the campaign poorly after a truncated pre-season overshadowed by a well-documented Greek court case, with the Manchester United captain sent off for two yellow cards.

Maguire’s fifth-minute challenge on Yussuf Poulsen was bad but his lunge on Kasper Dolberg was worse, with the steepness of England’s uphill battle soon increasing as Eriksen scored from the spot.

Confusion reigned at the decision to award the spot-kick that the former Tottenham playmaker lashed home, with England failing with their attempts to level.

Meanwhile, France stretched its unbeaten run against Croatia to eight games after a late goal by Kylian Mbappe gave the World Cup holders a 2-1 win in their Nations League top-tier Group 3 match Wednesday.

The result left France second in the group on 10 points from four games, behind Portugal on goal difference.

Croatia has three points and the Swedes none.

Goals from Bernardo Silva and a brace from Diogo Jota gave Portugal a comfortable 3-0 win over Sweden.

(SD-Agencies)