Ryanair has been told it’ll ‘lose customers’ after sharing a brutal World Cup tweet.
Southgate’s side lost 2-1 against France, putting them out of the competition, while France move on to face Morocco on Wednesday (14 December).
The loss came as a brutal blow to England fans, many of whom were pictured in tears once the match was over.
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England supporter Mark Trigg, 48, who heads home from Qatar tomorrow (12 December), told the PA news agency: "It’s disappointing, I can’t help but feel it’s a missed opportunity.”
Karen Barham, 60, who flies home today, lamented: "We needed more speed and incision in the final third.
"France had that final clinical finish that we didn’t. Heartbreaking."
With fans down in the dumps, many were taken aback when Irish airline Ryanair decided to stick the boot in - and some supporters were left vowing to boycott the airline.
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Posting a snap of a mocked up departures gate that read ‘south gate departures’ - Ryanair wrote: “They're coming home #NothingToDeclare.”
When a follower asked if Kane’s penalty ‘nearly hit’ one of their planes - Ryanair doubled down showing a ball sailing close to a plane in the sky.
The tweet has since gone viral, picking up more than 11,000 retweets and more than 80,000 likes - but it’s also attracted plenty of comments from angry England supporters who were unimpressed with the dig.
One wrote: “Seriously why are you people like this?”
Another said: “Tasteless @ryanair tasteless.”
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A third warned: “You just lost a lot of customers with this tweet.”
While someone else said: “Imagine an Irish airway taking the p**s, won’t be booking with you guys.”
In a rather different emotional display on social media, England captain Harry Kane took to Twitter to thank fans for their support, adding that he was ‘absolutely gutted’ about the result.
He wrote: “Absolutely gutted. We’ve given it everything and it’s come down to a small detail which I take responsibility for. There’s no hiding from it, it hurts and it’ll take some time to get over it but that’s part of sport.
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"Now it’s about using the experience to be mentally and physically stronger for the next challenge.
"Thanks for all the support throughout the tournament - it means a lot."
Kane scored England’s only goal during the match, but missed a penalty that would have been an equaliser.
Manager Gareth Southgate said after the loss: “Well, I think the performance did [deserve better]. Goals are decisive but I just said to the players in there I don’t think they could give any more.
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“I think they played really well against a top team and it’s fine margins, things at both ends that have ended up deciding the game, but I think the way they’ve progressed throughout this tournament has been fantastic.”
He continued: “We were here to try to win the tournament, and we had belief we could. I think we showed with the performance tonight against the reigning champions that we’ve got a team that could’ve done that.”
Claire Reid