Jack Grealish has defended himself from criticism that he neglected to take a penalty in the Euro 2020 final.
The 25-year-old England soccer player spoke about the nail-bitingly-tense climax of his team's match against Italy at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, July 11.
Taking to his official Twitter account, Grealish responded to a comment shared on the social media platform by Sky Sports, and stated: "I said I wanted to take one!!!!
"The gaffer [Gareth Southgate] 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 [penalty] when I said I will… [sic]"
Irish manager Roy Keane had slated Gareth Southgate's decision to have 19-year-old Bukayo Saka take the all-important final shot in lieu of Grealish. Saka's attempt was saved by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, thus costing England the tournament.
Take a look at this video of the penalty shoot-out below:Per Sky Sports, Keane stated: "If you're Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and have a young kid go up for a penalty ahead of you, you can't.
"You cannot let a shy 19-year-old go up in front of you. They have a lot more experience, Sterling has won trophies, they had to get in front of the young kid and stand up."
Jose Mourinho has also disparaged Southgate's choice, stating in an interview with TalkSPORT that: "The decision of the penalty talkers, I think it is hard to leave Saka as the last one.
"I think it is hard for a kid to have everything on his shoulders at that moment. I just feel very sorry for him. In this situation where was Sterling, where was Stones, where was Shaw?"
However, Southgate himself has since defended his decision to field Saka in the shoot-out, stating per Sky:
"I chose the penalty takers based on what we've done in training and nobody is on their own. We've won together as a team and it's absolutely on all of us in terms of not being able to win the game tonight.
"But in terms of the penalties, that's my call and totally rests with me."
England's other penalty misses were by 21-year-old Jadon Sancho and 23-year-old Marcus Rashford, while 27-year-old Harry Kane and 28-year-old Harry Maguire both managed to score. Nonetheless, every England player on that pitch did their country proud!