England fans have fumed over the “atrocious” quality of ITV’s footage of Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions’ pre-World Cup friendly with New Zealand
England fans were left fuming by the poor quality of the footage of England’s pre-World Cup clash with New Zealand on ITV.
Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions took on the Kiwis at Raymond James Stadium in Florida on Saturday evening, in their penultimate friendly before the tournament. But supporters watching back home in Blighty were less than impressed with the juddery camerawork on show or the quality of the grainy picture.
One fan ranted at ITV on X: “Is this a rerun from 1982 or 1978 world cup? Atrocious quality #itv #England” Another commented: “ITV what is happening with your pictures of the #England match. Looks like a 1980s tv.” And a third said: “Why does the game on ITV look like poor quality picture, like it’s a 1960s replay or something?”
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Another fan moaned: “ITV Why is the picture so s***?? Sort it out!!” And a fifth complained: “American host image + ITV = absolute s*** picture quality. World Cup will look crap on ITV, at least BBC will be having a 4k feed.”
Meanwhile, a sixth simply said: “ITV picture quality on this England game is garbage. Like watching Mexico 86”
However, some fans defended ITV. One said: “It is the same on the BBC for the Scotland game.” And a second said: “It’s the American footage.”
Another explained: “Technical crap but America use 30 frames per second, Uk 25 frames. Converting causes a s*** picture.”
Other viewers meanwhile were more preoccupied with the quality of the commentary provided by Sam Matterface and Lee Dixon.
One fan said: “Dear ITV, please don’t let Lee Dixon and his negative views anywhere near an England World Cup match for the whole month! Yours sincerely, the entire nation.”
Another posted: “Is Lee Dixon honestly the best available pundit ITV can wheel out for England games? Tragic!”
And a third said: “Matterface doesn’t offer even 5% of what [Clive] Tyldesley did when it comes to commentating on England games in ITV. Whatever were @itvfootball doing?”
On the pitch, Tuchel picked a strong line-up featuring Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Marc Guehi, Jarrell Quansah, Djed Spence; Jordan Henderson, Kobbie Mainoo, Morgan Rogers; Marcus Rashford, Ollie Watkins and Harry Kane.
It was a snoozefest for nearly 45 minutes, but with just a minute to go in the first-half, Kane gave England the lead in Tampa.
Spence was allowed acres of space down the left flank, before the fullback cut in onto his right foot and whipped the ball in. Kane escaped his marker and flicked a header in at the far post to make it 1-0.