‘I Said I Wanted To Take One!’ Grealish Says He Did Volunteer To Take A Penalty

Jack Grealish has hit back Roy Keane after being criticized by the pundit for not taking a penalty in England’s Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy.

Both Mourinho and Keane questioned why senior players, including Grealish, weren’t taking a penalty in the shoot-out for England after Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed from the spot

And Grealish responded on Twitter, saying: 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…’

Keane offered his sympathy for the 19-year-old Saka, who missed the decisive spot-kick, and questioned why other England players didn’t step up.

‘If you’re Grealish or Sterling, you can’t have a young kid step up in front of you,’ the former Republic of Ireland and Manchester United captain told ITV.

‘You can’t sit there and say “I see a 19-year-old kid walk in front of me, when I’ve played a lot more games, a lot more experience…” and Sterling, who has won trophies.

‘I’m not saying he wasn’t prepared, he might have been (penalty taker) six or seven, (but) you can’t sit there. It must be hard to take. You’ve got to get in front of this kid and say “listen, I’m gonna step up in front of you”.’

Grealish, 25, was one of boss Gareth Southgate’s go-to players from the bench throughout the tournament and started only one match in the 1-0 win against Czech Republic