What Harry Maguire said about his controversial celebration after being labelled “embarrassing”
England rout Albania
Needing four points from their last two qualification games in order to ensure a plane ticket to Qatar next year, England made certain that they are set to qualify, after recording a 5-0 thrashing of Albania, thanks to 5 first-half goals.
An excellent win for the #ThreeLions in their final home game of the year 🔥 pic.twitter.com/C6XUBCjkrb
— England (@England) November 12, 2021
It got sweeter still, with Emile Smith Rowe even being afforded his England debut from the bench in the dying stages of the affair at Wembley.
🦁1️⃣2️⃣6️⃣4️⃣
The newest member of the #ThreeLions family: @emilesmithrowe! pic.twitter.com/8SLbKUFGxM
— England (@England) November 12, 2021
Now, the Three Lions need just a point away to San Marino, who have not picked up a point across all of qualifying.
Maguire hits back at celebration critics
Manchester United defender Harry Maguire kicked off the scoring, nodding in from a Reece James free-kick in the opening minutes. The celebration that followed was a hit-back at his recent critics of his poor form, but was lambasted by former United legend Roy Keane as “embarrassing”.
“That’s embarrassing, he’s been a disgrace the last few months for Man Utd.”
Roy Keane was not impressed over Harry Maguire’s celebration after his goal earlier tonight#ITVFootball pic.twitter.com/mMXfpZkyCT
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) November 12, 2021
After the game, Maguire explained his thought process, in turn defending his choice of celebration. The England man revealed:
“The celebration was a knee slide, it just came naturally to me. It’s an amazing feeling to score for my country. It wasn’t directed at anyone, it just came naturally to do that and open the scoring for England and get the important three points.”
Meanwhile, Gareth Southgate added:
“He’s rushed back because he’s the sort of player who has a huge conscience to help his club. You get lots of players who hide in the treatment room when pressure is on. He hasn’t done that and I have massive respect for that but you can go into matches not fully fit and you’re judged as fully fit in those moments.”
Has the criticism of Maguire been unfair?
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