Roy Keane has criticised England‘s senior players for not stepping up ahead of Bukayo Saka to take the final penalty in their Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy.
The game went to a penalty shootout after the two teams were locked at 1-1 at the end of extra time.
Italy won the game 3-2, with Gianluigi Donnarumma saving the decisive penalty from 19-year-old Saka.
Donnarumma also kept out Jadon Sancho’s spot-kick, while Marcus Rashford hit the post for his take. Italy’s Jorginho and Andrea Belotti saw their penalties saved by Jordan Pickford.
After the game, Keane, speaking on ITV, said that Jack Grealish or Raheem Sterling should have stepped up ahead of Saka to take that final penalty.
He said: “If you’re Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and watch a kid walk up ahead of you, you can’t.
“You can’t sit there and go ‘I see a young kid, 19-year-old, a child, walking up in front of me, and I’ve played more games, I’ve got a lot more experience’.
“Sterling, who has won a lot more games, won trophies. Gareth [Southgate] might have been thinking he’s going to be six or seven, you can’t sit there.
“That must be hard to take, you’ve got to go to this young kid and say I’ll step up before you.”
Southgate said after the game that the choice of penalty was “down to me“.
He added: “Nobody is on their own. We have won together as a team and it is on all of us together to not be able to win this game.
“In terms of penalties, it is my call and it totally rests with me.”
Grealish response to Keane comments
Grealish has since responded to the comments made by Keane, explaining on social media that he did put himself forward to take a spot-kick.
Earlier this morning, he tweeted: “I said I wanted to take one!!!
“The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight!
“But I won’t have people say that I didn’t want to take a peno when I said I will…”
Featured Image Credit: Getty
