Jack Grealish insists it wasn’t his decision not to take a penalty in England’s shoot-out defeat against Italy in last night’s Euro 2020 final.
The Aston Villa star didn’t have much of a role to play for the Three Lions at this summer’s tournament, with Gareth Southgate sometimes bringing him on from the bench, but sometimes not even using him at all.
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Grealish has since come under fire as he was one of the more senior players who didn’t step up to take a penalty against Italy at Wembley last night, with the responsibility falling to youngster Bukayo Saka, whose effort was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Grealish has now tweeted, however, that he wanted to take a spot-kick, and it was the decision of manager Southgate for him not to be one of the takers…
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… https://t.co/3mBpKyMoUV— Jack Grealish (@JackGrealish) July 12, 2021
This seems a strange call by the manager, as England surely could’ve done with a more experienced and cooler head in such a high-pressure situation.
England fans will also generally hope we see more of Grealish on the pitch for the national team in future tournaments.
Jack Grealish is a class act!
(via Insta / super_ollyt)pic.twitter.com/dzD48JaehZ
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) July 12, 2021